Bonum Certa Men Certa

The European Patent Office is Googlebombing and Bamboozling the Public About Quality of European Patents

EPO's patent quality hogwash



Summary: The disastrous policies of Battistelli are rapidly becoming common knowledge across Europe and the entire world, so the EPO pretends that it's taking feedback into account and maintaining patent quality (a lie, as usual)

IF ONE searches for or looks up (e.g. on the Web) information about patent quality at the EPO, the search results are not exactly flattering. They are worrisome to potential applicants and mortifying to businesses that spent millions of Euros pursuing European Patents (EPs). The EPO's management is aware of it and right now, in a rather shallow effort to conceal the facts -- that Battistelli has essentially demolished quality control and reduced patent quality (EPs) -- it is using Orwellian language (warning: epo.org link), with old favourites such as "Early Certainty", i.e. telling people something about the outcome before actually properly examining the facts. Battistelli ruined the EPO and no doubt there are attempts to shift blame/pass liability to the staff below him, including examiners whom he constantly abuses, dismisses (based on his personal taste), and bullies against the law -- possibly an arrestable offense if he wasn't hiding under the table surrounded by bodyguards who are a total, utter waste of money.



Here is one part of the 'prose' (hogwash) which the EPO filed under "news" today:

The participants appreciated the highly visible results from Early Certainty from Search and welcomed the opportunity to hear more from the Office about how it will implement Early Certainty from Examination and Opposition. EPO representatives stressed the Office's determination to continuously improve quality levels.


Examiners across the board mock this policy, as they know it cannot accomplish what their job was intended to accomplish. It's all about speed, obviously compromising quality and thus doing a disservice to applicants.

"The danger to the EPO's future is very real and even existential."epi, which bemoaned the EPO's behaviour before its letter simply vanished, is today being cited by the EPO. This page about speeding up examination is cited and the EPO says "These are the flexible options offered by the EPO to help you shorten and/or speed up the grant process" (other than nepotism).

Put in simpler terms, there are ways to undermine the patent examination/application assessment process. How does that help the applicant? To be granted a patent in error (only to be thrown away by a court later) or to be denied a patent in error? You cannot use two women to deliver a baby in 4.5 months. You also cannot just deliver a baby after a few months and hope that an incubator will make up for the absence of a uterus, to use an awkward analogy. Battistelli's unreasonable expectations are revealing; he never studied issues pertaining to patents and he's not even qualified to do so. He has absolutely no background in science. He's just a right-wing politician like Donald Trump and he relies on "alternative facts" like "Early Certainty" in order to shape policy in a disastrous way.

"By that point, however, Battistelli will already have left the EPO -- left it all ruined but cynically recalling the "production" figures which he essentially faked by cheating."Stempeutics, by the way, based on today's announcement [1, 2], still believes EPs are worth enough to merit press releases. That's misguided, more so now than ever before.

The danger to the EPO's future is very real and even existential. The EPO under Battistelli won't attract many more applications; it's overpriced and the Office is incompetent (the management). The EPO is still living/surviving on the backlog; it's dealing with old applications, which are expected to run out some time next year, whereupon a lot of the examiners simply become redundant. By that point, however, Battistelli will already have left the EPO -- left it all ruined but cynically recalling the "production" figures which he essentially faked by cheating.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft Uses LLM Slop to Defraud (or Rob) Shareholders
Microsoft is basically defrauding its shareholders by LLM slop
The "Davos Effect": Tarnishing the Reputation of Places Not by Overtourism But by Oligarch Infestation
The last Venice needs is an affiliation with Venetian oligarchs
 
Gemini Links 01/07/2025: Distraction-Free Writing and Hytale Mismanagement
Links for the day
Links 01/07/2025: "Beauty of Blogging" and "Etiquette of Collapse"
Links for the day
The Web is a Dead End
We need to adopt alternatives
When Words Lose Their Intended Meaning
examples of words that, at least in the technical spheres, don't mean what they sound like
People Who Disagree With You on Technical Matters May or May Not Agree With You on Political Things (But Usually They Do)
What bothers me a great deal is seeing left-leaning people accusing other left-leaning people of being "nazis"
"Too Much Choice" and "Too Many Programming Languages"
What IBM and its apologists aim for was attempted in the 1930s and it failed
Microsoft Lost 400,000,000 Windows Users, According to Microsoft
more people adopt smaller computers and many people replace Windows with GNU/Linux, as they don't really need a new computer
Half a Year Gone, What's to Come Next
In the second half of 2025 we expect to be done with the Microsoft SLAPPs
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 30, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 30, 2025
People at the Very Top of Microsoft Know How Bad Things Really Are
There's no product that can replace the former profitability of Windows licensing and stuff that went on top of Windows
Gemini Links 01/07/2025: Mid Year and a Tour of Old Languages
Links for the day
EPO Presentation Bemoans Misuse of Slop in Decision-Making on Patents and in Classification (Which is Likely Illegal Too)
We habitually mention failed use cases of LLMs on the Web
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Confirmed, "XBox Hardware Is Dead"
It's possible that over 20% of the staff will be laid off
Links 30/06/2025: Kyrgyzstan vs Media Freedom, Dalai Lama Succession
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/06/2025: Backend Programs in Gemini and Dynamic Content Without The Scripting
Links for the day
Links 30/06/2025: Zuckerberg’s Tax-Evading Scheme Harms Kids, US Copyright Office Lacks Leadership
Links for the day
Microsoft Isn't Laying Off Tens of Thousands to 'Invest' in Slop ('Hey Hi'), It's Laying Off Tens of Thousands Because It's Running Out of Money (and Willing Lenders)
the layoffs are a sign of the business failing, not "hey hi" (whatever that is) replacing staff
Intel Lays Off 20% of Its Workforce, Microsoft is Doing the Same This Year
Like a yoyo, whatever goes up will come back down
Microsoft XBox Layoffs: Almost 2,000 Layoffs Became "Over 2,000"? (Over 20% of the Staff)
over 20% of staff will be let go, not counting staff that leaves voluntarily
GNU/Linux Rises to New Highs in Angola, Africa in General is Abandoning Windows
Western media barely covers Microsoft layoffs in Africa, but in recent years Microsoft culled the workforce and even shut down entire operations
Summer Plans in Techrights and Elsewhere
massive layoffs at Microsoft
Destination Geminispace (in the Age of LLM Slop and Slop Images That Infest the Web and Social Control Media)
Geminispace isn't vast, but at least it is - on average - a lot "cleaner"
GNU/Linux Growing in Sierra Leone This Year
Based on what statCounter is seeing, this year there are more and more people there who adopt GNU/Linux
Serial Sloppers Gonna Slop
More sites out there ought to call out the cheaters
Quartz (qz.com) is Spam and a Slopfarm
It used to be OK. Then they fired the staff.
Links 30/06/2025: US Economic Woes, Extreme Heat
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 29, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 29, 2025
Gemini Links 30/06/2025: "The AI Hype" and New AuraGem Ask
Links for the day
Our Desktops Are Not Your Experiments, X is Not an Experiment
Breaking what already worked
Microsoft's Big Lies Regarding This Week's Mass Layoffs Have Already Begun (and They're Already Being Spread by Slopfarms)
Microsoft is the "market leader" in slop
Explaining the Full Story of SLAPPs From Microsoft Staff
For every action there is a reaction, for every attack there will be proportionate consequences
The Openwashing Shills Initiative (OSI) - Part III: IRS and Status of OSI
"They lied to the US IRS and there’s a paper trail"
IBM Red Hat's Dogmatic Fanaticism Under a Thin Veil of "Modernism"
IBM now has the audacity to paint people who don't agree as "nazis"
Microsoft's Share in Guatemala Fell From 97% to 14%
Eventually Microsoft will get stuck in a loop of layoffs, layoffs, and more layoffs
They Made Technology Scary and Taught Us That It's Innocent, Friendly, Even "Social"
Rejection of all this "apps" and "gadgets" and "Smart" (whatever that means!) status quo isn't a rejection of society
The Media is Under Attacks Partly Because There's Little Other (Remaining) Press to Speak in Its Defence
The biggest danger here is that when there's very little press or no "opposition media" left it becomes even easier to crush critics because there aren't many people left to speak about the matter
If Your Web Site is Run by Bots, Eventually Nobody Will 'Read' It Except Bots (People Don't Want to Read Slop)
Eventually people learn from mistakes
Links 29/06/2025: Microsoft Releases False/Fake Benchmarks, "Google Wants You to Watch Ads or Take Surveys to Read Articles"
Links for the day
Links 29/06/2025: Data Breaches and Online Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/06/2025: "The Price Of Eggs" and Gemini 3D Tic Tac Toe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 28, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 28, 2025