Bonum Certa Men Certa

Latest EPO Crisis: Junk Patents Granted in Preparation for Vision of Europe as Litigation Central (UPC)

The Board too recognised that there is a "crisis" (in its own words, shown below)

EPO crisis



Summary: Europe is rapidly turning into one of the world's worst places to have a practicing business as it's now a fertile trolling territory

THE EPO, as we noted here quite recently (in several articles), started granting terrible patents (EPs) on life -- patents that even the USPTO is denying for obvious reasons.



“The EPO want time for discussion and consideration of the effect of this divergence.”
      --Isobel Finnie, Haseltine Lake LLP
Not too long ago even the EPO's management begrudgingly admitted that monopolies on life had to be stopped and this new legal analysis looks back at it, noting the role played by the EPO's Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA):

The European Patent Office (EPO) has issued a Notice advising that proceedings before its examining and opposition divisions will be stayed if they depend entirely on the patentability of plants/animals, or plant/animal parts (eg seeds, fruit) obtained by "essentially biological processes". This is because directly opposing views have been reached by the EPO's Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA), (its highest level of review) in a 2015 decision, versus the view set out by the European Commission in a Notice issued on 3 November 2016 on whether this type of product should be patentable in Europe. The EPO want time for discussion and consideration of the effect of this divergence.


We expect that the Boards of Appeal will also stop the EPO from granting any further patents on CRISPR (possibly invaliding those already granted in the process), but this can take years and the Boards of Appeal are under a massive attack from Battistelli, who isn't even supposed to have any authority over them (violation of the EPC).

"We expect that the Boards of Appeal will also stop the EPO from granting any further patents on CRISPR (possibly invaliding those already granted in the process), but this can take years and the Boards of Appeal are under a massive attack from Battistelli, who isn't even supposed to have any authority over them (violation of the EPC)."As of yesterday, even the British establishment could see that the EPO had gone off the rails. To quote a org.uk Web site: "The European Patent Office (EPO) has declared that it intends to grant a broad patent for the use of CRISPR technologies to the University of California, the University of Vienna and Dr Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max-Planck Institute in Berlin."

This should never have been granted. Another .org Web site seems to have just realised that EPO is now one of the world's worst for patent quality; this is doing enormous damage to all existing EPs! The article said: "The European Patent Office, or EPO, announced its intentions to grant the University of California a broad patent for CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology in late March."

"It would be completely unimaginable some years back, but look what patent examination has been reduced to under Battistelli."We have already explained what CRISPR is about, especially to the uninitiated. There are ethical, contractual, and common sense issues, putting aside the importance of patent scope. It would be completely unimaginable some years back, but look what patent examination has been reduced to under Battistelli. How long before examination becomes altogether negligible or redundant like in France?

Anyone who has spent some time working with or reading about patents would know that lousy patents with broad range/scope are profoundly detrimental to science -- a toxic mix or a dangerous cocktail, as a certain lunatic might dub it.

"Of course," one comment said yesterday, "another way to pump up business for the UPC is to push for more patent applications at the EPO to go through to issue without carefully policing prosecution amendments under Art 123(2) EPC. That would serve very nicely, wouldn't it? I recall that grants at the EPO have recently risen by 40%."

"How long before examination becomes altogether negligible or redundant like in France?"Yes, exactly! People are finally getting it.

Earlier this morning the EPO wrote: "Take a look at patent litigation, from A to Z!"

So that's all they care about now? Litigation? The EPO needs to focus on examination, not litigation.

"For all we know, Britain cannot join the UPC and thus, the UPC might never get off the ground at all (it strictly depends on Britain's participation in its current form)."Where is IP Kat when one needs it to cover these alarming developments? IP Kat is taking a bow to the EPO today with this promotional puff piece, but nothing is said about the EPO crisis, except in very old comment threads. It ought to be obvious by now that the EPO under Battistelli doesn't give a damn about the EPC (see the latest example) and unless something is done to stop this abuse, damage will spread to the whole of Europe, inflicting all sorts of companies with troll lawsuits (potentially from China and the US).

There is a portion in new comments which spreks of UPC and Britain. One person said "this raises an interesting question: will unitary patents, at least for the short while from the start of the UPC to Brexit, automatically cover Gibraltar? We know that they will cover the Isle of Man, but only because a specific Order was passed in order to reconcile the fact that UK patents are protected under Manx law with the Isle of Man's non-EU status. Gibraltar's situation, on the other hand, is the opposite: uniquely among British Overseas Territories, it's (for the time being) in the EU, but UK patents aren't protected under Gibraltar law."

"As we noted here earlier this week, there is a growing belief that Battistelli wants to completely demolish the EPO as a 'necessary' sacrifice for the UPC regime."For all we know, Britain cannot join the UPC and thus, the UPC might never get off the ground at all (it strictly depends on Britain's participation in its current form).

"Regarding the UPC comment," one person responded, "it is incorrect to state that Gibraltar is in the EU, because clearly it is not, but I am not one to split hairs, so I am prepared to accept that it is."

This then disrupted the whole thread, making it about the EU and Gibraltar rather than the UPC.

As we noted here earlier this week, there is a growing belief that Battistelli wants to completely demolish the EPO as a 'necessary' sacrifice for the UPC regime.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Advocacy of Software Freedom Changed, LUGs Became Less Relevant
The way we see it, support groups like LUGs sort of outlived their usefulness when it became easier to install GNU/Linux
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims or says can be trusted
Compromised by NVIDIA Proprietary Library
Meanwhile in Boston there are "[r]oundtable talk with FSF volunteers (both in-person and online)"
How Software Patents Were Viewed or Their General Status Changed Over Time
A rough summary
 
Watch the FSF Party Live (via Livestream)
It's in WebM format, which is widely supported by now
When Microsoft "Integrates" Something With "AI" It Means It's Losing Money and Is Generally Hopeless
how did Bing fare after 36 months of LLM slop being hyped up as "replacement" for search?
Most Certificates Don't Improve Security, They Mostly Increase Downtime (for No Good Reason)
The 'Gemini sites' (capsules) are a growing force
The statCounter Site Has Data Integrity Problems
Maybe we'll get back to statCounter when its data becomes more "stable" again
10 Ways to Combat Software Patents
software patents are loathed also by proprietary software developers
"Just a Little Bit of Meat..."
Free software "absolutism" is not a radical stance, more so if the only "radical" belief the user possesses is that he or she must be in control of his or her software, and by extension his or her computer
Red Hat is Ignoring the Free Software Community, It's a "Fortune 1000" Vendor
Red Hat's blog also participates a lot in promoting of Wall Street's latest pump-and-dump "AI" scheme
Free Software Foundation Party Has Begun
We shall be focusing a lot on software patents today
Former Head of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Lina Khan Knows Whatever Microsoft Touches Will Die
Just like Skype (as recently as months ago) [...] When Microsoft grabs things, or when it buys things, it almost never ends well
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About LibreOffice in Austria and Wine 10.16
very short
Links 04/10/2025: "attempted Coup" Noted in Facebook, Russia Kills Journalists via Drones
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/10/2025: Anesthesia and Baudpunk
Links for the day
Links 04/10/2025: "Privacy Harm Is Harm", Criticism Outlawed in US
Links for the day
Garmin Uses Linux for Some of the Garmin Products, Now It's Sued by Strava Using Software Patents
Software patents should never have been granted in the first place
Richard Stallman Will Give a Talk in Sweden in 6 Days
Dr. Stallman, despite his battle with cancer is still alive and mentally sharp
FSF Turns 40
We'll be focusing on patent-related topics this weekend
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 03, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 03, 2025
Gemini Links 04/10/2025: Distro Hopping and "Part Time"
Links for the day
We Are Turning 19 in One Month, FSF Turns 40 in 3 Hours (CET)
For our anniversary next month we still have no concrete plans
Patent Docs (or PatentDocs) Learned the Wrong Lessons From the Death of TypePad
Had they gone ahead with an SSG, they'd become a lot more future-proof
USPTO Patent Bubble Already Imploding, After Decades of Artificial Inflation, Entire Offices Close for Good
we can deduce that financial pressures (lack of "demand" for monopolies) play a role
TikTok is Not Harmless (Being CheeTok in the US Will Advance Orange Agenda)
Social control media isn't "fun and games"; it's a digital weapon that lets hostile groups or nations infiltrate others, then turn them against themselves
Andy Farnell and Helen Plews Explain What "Modern" Tech Does to Old People
Imposing terrible tech "religion" on people is not helping them
Tomorrow the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 and Its Web Site is Still Slow Due to DDoS by LLM Slop Bots
For an advocacy group, uptime is important (for its message to remain accessible)
Slopwatch: Google News as a Firehose of LLM Slop About "Linux"
Google News is really bad
Datamation, Where I Used to Publish Articles, Appears to Have Been Sold to TechnologyAdvice Only to Become a Slopfarm
I'd prefer to not associate with that site anymore
Links 03/10/2025: "NPR’s Economics Lessons Come With Neoliberal Spin" and Canada Post at Risk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/10/2025: Panic Attacks and Food Adulteration
Links for the day
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day