Bonum Certa Men Certa

A Patent Office or a Lobbying Firm? 'European' Patent Office (EPO) Sticking its Nose in UPC Matters Again.

An antidemocratic process which harms Europeans is discussed/constructed behind closed doors

Trojan horse



Summary: Unitary (or Unified) Patent Court in the EU is still just wishful thinking, but those who are eager to see it materialising (the patent microcosm working for personal gain) would have us believe it'll be here "real soon now" (same thing they have been saying for years whilst endlessly renaming this unpopular effort)

The EPO's lobbying in Brussels was mentioned here earlier this year because there seems to be increased emphasis on that. The tyrant who runs the EPO doesn't give a damn about democracy and he wishes to impose the UPC regime (totally antidemocratic) on the whole of Europe in one fell swoop. Billionaires and their lawyers are looking forward to that.



Based on yesterday's live coverage of "International Patent Forum 2016", "Stefan Luginbuehl of the EPO gives an update on the Unitary Patent, the EPO's new responsibilities and the fees."

"The tyrant who runs the EPO doesn’t give a damn about democracy and he wishes to impose the UPC regime (totally antidemocratic) on the whole of Europe in one fell swoop. "The EPO's boosters (who rub Battistelli's back) keep insisting that the EPO is not pushing for or touching policy pertaining to the UPC. Either they're delusional, not paying attention, or simply lying. We have already given nearly a dozen examples where EPO senior staff goes lobbying for the UPC. Battistelli is doing it all the time. A later update from MIP's live coverage said that "Stefan Luginbuehl of the EPO gives an update on the Unitary Patent, the EPO..."

Can we quit pretending that the EPO is just taking the role of examining and granting patents? It's now somewhat of a self-serving monster striving to improve 'results' even if that requires doctoring them a little. All hail King Battistelli and kneel to his mighty globalist policy! Since when does an international body override European policymakers and influence them?

"Since when does an international body override European policymakers and influence them?"According to this legal analysis republished in The Register this morning: "Companies will be able to opt out an "unlimited" number of their EU patents from the jurisdiction of the new Unified Patent Court (UPC) at one time, it has been learned."

Well, let’s pretend that the UPC is unstoppable and only a matter of time. What we have here are self-fulfilling prophecies, especially in light of Brexit (UK exiting the EU) prospects, Spain's opposition to the UPC, and many other factors, including the end of the Battistelli era.

Watch today's UPC piece from IAM and recall that the EPO's PR firm pays for IAM's promotion of the UPC. This piece parrots the bogus EPO numbers (including from China) and says: "As this blog has noted, the latest statistics from the European Patent Office (EPO) show that this firm has plenty of company among its Chinese peers, and that the EPO filing route is attracting increased interest from the country. Applications from China jumped 22% year-on-year, which combined with greater interest from the US, helped to account for most of the 4.8% overall growth in the EPO’s application figure. Huawei came in fourth among corporate applicants to the office, with rival ZTE the only other Chinese firm among the top 25. No surprise, then, that China’s applications were skewed towards digital communication and computer technology; even if, overall, medical technology led the way in both absolute and percentage growth terms."

"There is a lot of high-budget propaganda going on right now and guess who pays the bill? Secret EPO budget."As a patent attorney, Joeri Beetz, noted a week ago, many of these patents are only written in Chinese. Should every European now learn Mandarin? Or hire lawyers who speak Mandarin? To read many thousands of patents and properly study them? What the heck is being compared here anyway? In order to promote the UPC even more, weakly tackling a common point that's often raised against the UPC, IAM also published "End of prohibition on double patenting" (cross posted). UPC propaganda money that was given to IAM seems to have been well spent. It's not too hard to see who they work for. Watch how Patently-O is already led to believe the fantasies of Battistelli, who keeps telling the media that UPC is just months away. To quote Patently-O's latest: "Within the next few months, the Preparatory Committee will wrap-up its activities and we will then await ratification by the member nations. The UPC Agreement was signed by 25 EU Member States. However, it must be ratified by at least 13 states, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom – That process is likely to be concluded this summer as well. If that schedule goes forward then the UPC may be open-for-business for the start of 2017."

Well, this is wishful thinking. There are several barriers which we wrote about before, the latest of which is Brexit (there are even greater barriers).

The UK-IPO has apparently just released "Proposed Changes to the Patents Rules". As per IP Copy blog: "The UKIPO has released a consultation on proposed changes to the Patents Rules. The deadline for making comments is 22 April 2016 (at 11:45pm). Eleven different changes are proposed which range from the helpful (providing a notice of intention to grant) to the nerdier end (removing the need to paper forms in triplicate) of the spectrum."

How many people are willing to bet that UK-IPO will continue to be the British patent authority going well into 2017? The EPO's bogus numbers would have us believe otherwise; one person who has patents at the UK-IPO and later attempted to apply for patents at the EPO is extremely furious and considers taking legal action against the EPO (albeit it's hardly possible) for what can easily be interpreted as gross misconduct (we saw documents). We are going to write about this in the future as it's currently the subject of investigation at European authorities.

The bottom line is, don't believe the EPO and so-called 'news' sites that work for the EPO when they speak about the UPC. They keep making false predictions, hoping that gullible readers will assume inevitability and naively accept these predictions as fact. There is a lot of high-budget propaganda going on right now and guess who pays the bill? Secret EPO budget.

Recent Techrights' Posts

SLAPP Censorship - Part 22 Out of 200: When You Complain People Impersonate You in IRC (But You Yourself Impersonate People in IRC and Lock Them Out of Their IRC Handles)
We'll cover this with direct evidence some time soon
The Empty Suits of IBM Managers (NIH or "Nothing Invented Here")
IBM's management adopted the business model of parasites
Dr. Stallman’s Work Will Never be Considered 'Mainstream' Because He Rejects and Works Against the So-called 'Mainstream'
Try to be more like Stallman
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part IX - Cocaine Addicts in Charge of the EPO Attacking Families of EPO Staff
Things like being high-profile and being a serious drug addict aren't opposites
 
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Must More Carefully Investigate or Assess the Financial State of Law Firms in the UK
We'll cover this in depth in the future
GAFAM Mozilla Removes Theora Support, Now GNU Needs to Re-encode Videos
Mozilla used to mean something to Free software advocates
An Open Admission Profits Depend on Addiction
Proprietary software tends to be like this
IBM Americas President Ayman Antoun Comes to OpenText, Weeks Ahead the Mass Layoffs Begin
Is that what IBM will be good at?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 24, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Gemini Links 24/03/2026: Junk Drawer Time Capsule and Building Outside Alire
Links for the day
Not Much LLM Slop About "Linux" Lately, It Only Ever Comes From the Same Few Sites
As long as only few such sites use LLM slop we can skip and avoid them
Links 24/03/2026: "Epic Lays Off Over 1000 Employees" and US in Financial Trouble According to the Fed
Links for the day
The "Media" Does Not Only 'Miss' Mass Layoffs
"The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media missed it"
2012: 'Secure' (Microsoft-Controlled) Boot Has Not (Yet) Been Made Obligatory. 2026: systemd Has Not Implemented Age Verification
should we stop calling "nazi" everyone we don't agree with?
More Threats (Including Physical Threats) Against Us Are a Dumb Move
It's like a "hit list" (targets list) and I shall keep the police duly informed
New Example of Pentagon in "Feminist" Clothing Inside Fake News of Publishers Paid to Promote Outsourcing to US ("Clown Computing") and American Slop
Google now pays money to promote Google as a friend of women
Hating Techrights is a Career
but is it good for civil society?
The New Layoffs: 'Silent Layoffs', 'Secret Layoffs', 'Quiet Layoffs', 'Passive Layoffs' 'Stealth Layoffs', and Unannounced Layoffs Disguised as Return-to-Office (RTO Mandates)
The US needs to revisit and fix the WARN Act
What Feminism in Science Means (Codes of Conduct Don't Tackle the Real Issues)
Universality matters, more so in a project or community that's said to build the "universal operating system" (Debian)
SLAPP Censorship - Part 21 Out of 200: It's About Behaviour Online, Not How Much Money From Shadowy Third Parties Gets Spent on Lawyers and Two Barristers
75+ KG of legal papers, 2 cases, 2 barristers (one hiding in the metadata) and maybe two law firms (also hiding in the metadata) against two modest people in Manchester seems disproportionate and vindicative
Links 24/03/2026: "Airports on ICE" and "Have You Paid Your “Intuit Tax”?"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/03/2026: Slop Interview and Why Slop Makes Lousy Code
Links for the day
Richard Stallman to Give Public Talk This Thursday at the University of Bologna (Italy)
Hardly the first time he speaks in Bologna
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 23, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, March 23, 2026
Gemini Links 23/03/2026: "Mandatory" Bad Things and Dangers of Perfection Aspirations
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 20 Out of 200: All Roads Lead to Rome and to GAFAM Funding
Now about 10% into this series
Last Week's EPO Strike Was the Biggest (Highest Participation Rate), Hours Ago General Assembly Discussed Next (Growing) Intensity of Strikes
Well done and well attended
Mass Layoffs at HashiCorp, IBM Hid Them
The media did not mention those layoffs
Microsoft Downgraded on Concerns (Lack of Growth) Amid Silent Layoffs in 2026
The press isn't functioning anymore
Links 23/03/2026: Gulf Water at Risk, Heatwave in Malaysia
Links for the day
Slop Means False, New Article by Cybershow
"We are living in a world that is rapidly divesting from reality."
Debianism election 2026 community poll created, everybody can vote
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 23/03/2026: "Shocking Peter Thiel Antichrist Lectures", Robert Mueller Remembered
Links for the day
The Scandal Bigger Than IBM/Red Hat Layoffs is the de Facto "Media Blackout" About Those Layoffs
So we have a media crisis, aside from the economic crises
Gemini Links 23/03/2026: Geminispace/Elpher Enhancement and the Cerberus Cinco
Links for the day
Fear is Not a Legitimate Factor
Smart people know that trying to prevent moral people from doing the "Right Thing" will backfire
Fuel Autonomy and What It Teaches Us About Software Autonomy (or Software Freedom)
Need we wait until a "software Pearl Harbor" or protect ourselves proactively by weaning ourselves off of GAFAMware?
Scheduled Maintenance This Coming Wednesday
Other than that, all is the same and we carry on as usual
Most Press Articles About IBM Are LLM Slop, Sometimes With Slop Images
IBM basically laid off almost 1,000 people last week [...] At the moment about 75% of the 'articles' we see about IBM (in recent days) are some kind of slop
Links 23/03/2026: Security Breaches, Energy Shortages, Another SRA Scandal, and Patents on Nature
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 22, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, March 22, 2026