Bonum Certa Men Certa

Citing the European Patent Convention, Spanish Court Tosses Lawsuit With EPO-Granted European Patent

Spain flag on palace



Summary: The quality of European Patents (EPs) -- a subject of growing levels of scrutiny -- as demonstrated in Barcelona this summer

THE EPO has long been granting software patents in defiance of the European Patent Convention -- something that would further accelerate if the UPC power-grab ever gained any traction/got a foothold (it's very unlikely, hence our choice of tense in "would").



Techrights is not an enemy of the EPO. Techrights wants what's good for the EPO. Techrights is viewed as an enemy by top-level EPO management (Team Battistelli), hence it has been blocked by Battistelli. We are pretty certain that EPO examiners already know -- and can check our history on this subject -- that we care about quality of patents; it's not about patents per se (in general). Our main complaint -- all through these years -- was granting of low-quality patents in defiance of the rules.

"Spain rejects the UPC for more than one reason (such as language). They specified several other reasons for shunning the terrible, awful UPC."Every now and then we highlight a public display of the problem (symptom), such as the Administrative Council tossing a whole class of patents (biological processes), the appeal boards voiding patents, and sometimes actual courts (where fees are enormous, for both defendant/s and plaintiff) rejecting EPs upon closer scrutiny.

That makes perfect sense. If patents are improperly granted, sooner or later these patents will expire or be voided (one of the two).

Make no mistake about it. Not everyone wants patent quality, which typically translates into a decreased number of lawsuits. Consider for instance IAM Media. A short while ago IAM, a longtime advocate of the UPC (because it advocates for Battistelli and patent trolls), wrote that "Spain will not join UPC because Spanish is not one of the official languages. Go figure!"

That's after IAM spread fake news about the UPC in Spain (about half a year ago when some Spanish media did the same thing).

Spain rejects the UPC for more than one reason (such as language). They specified several other reasons for shunning the terrible, awful UPC. We wrote many articles about it, going back to around 2010.

Does Spain need the UPC? No. The Spanish patent office does a better job (examination and searches) than the EPO under Battistelli, as we last noted a month ago, citing people who have worked with both.

Moreover, Ana-Laura Morales from Grau & Angulo has just published this self-promotional piece about a judgment from earlier this summer (we have not seen any press coverage of it in English). Here are the key facts:



In its judgment of June 30 2017, the Barcelona Court of Appeal confirmed the Barcelona Commercial Court Number 4 first-instance decision, which had dismissed the patent infringement action filed by Novartis against several generics for alleged infringement of European Patent 2'292'219 (EP'219)

[...]

In its first-instance decision, the Barcelona Commercial Court Number 4 upheld the defendants' interpretation of the claim based on Article 69 of the European Patent Convention and thus dismissed Novartis's infringement action. This judgment was in line with the court's previous decisions and those of the Barcelona Court of Appeal in preliminary injunction proceedings.

With its June 30 2017 judgment, the Barcelona Court of Appeal confirmed the first-instance decision, thus interpreting the claim and establishing its scope in line with the defendants. In particular, the court reiterated the importance of interpreting a claim in light of the description of the patent, which in this case clearly supported the defendants' understanding of its scope.


Got that? European Patents smacked down by the Catalans. And some people still wonder why we have a hard time with what's going on at the EPO...

Looking up more information about the patent in question, it was used elsewhere this summer (e.g. Court of Appeal of The Hague) and it was granted on the 12th of June 2013, i.e. under Battistelli.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Techrights Does Not Compete With LLM Slop, It Exposes the Bastards, Plagiarists and Scammers Who Do That
People like Scam Altman, still facing a lawsuit from his own sister for sexual abuse against her
Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu Became LLM Slop and Some People Fail to See the Immorality of Plagiarism
it lessens the incentive for people to publish real articles
Microsoft Layoffs Again in Bay Area
Microsoft relies on people's false belief that being "in LinkedIn" will get you a job; well, seems like even working inside LinkedIn really sucks and you lose the job
 
The "AI" (Slop) Bubble Already Popped, But It's Not an Overnight Collapse
where Microsoft put its money
No More Steven Astorino at IBM, Chatter About Weekly/Nonstop Layoffs at IBM
What happened? Good luck guessing.
Looking at Corruption in Europe, Going Beyond the EPO
Expect a new series to kick off very soon
Slopwatch: Security SPAM and LLM Slop for SEO and FUD Purposes, Perpetually Tarnishing the Perception of Linux and (Open)SSH Security
A lot of this Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) comes from Microsoft and its LLMs
Links 30/05/2025: Google's LLM Slop Pushers Are Killing Journalism and Shira Perlmutter Fails to Stop Bribed Regime From Legalising Plagiarism (in "AI" Clothing)
Links for the day
Links 30/05/2025: Offline Arts and "Threshold of Patience"
Links for the day
Signing Off Serious Lies With a Statement of Truth is No Joking Matter
It's not hard to see what's happening here
Links 30/05/2025: LLM Slop Already Ingests and Vomits Its Own Garbage, Facebook Exec Admits Copyrights a Concern Too
Links for the day
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Result in More Whistleblowers From Microsoft
Microsoft's predatory pricing is further
EPO Poll: 68% Dissatisfied With Quality of Slop (Wrongly Framed as "AI") for Patent Classification
Slop does not work, it's just falsely advertised with extra hype (funded by slop pushers that sponsor the major media)
Big Crowds Gather to Learn About Software Freedom From the Man Who Started GNU/Linux in 1983
"It was a great success"
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Fighting Against the Bad News, and Slop is Dehumanisation Disguised as "Intelligence"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 29, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 29, 2025
Links 29/05/2025: Chinese Cracking Against EU Institutions (Prague), More Assaults on Media and Its Funding Sources
Links for the day
EPO Workers Caution That the Officials Are Still Illegally Trying to Replace Staff With Slop (to Lower Quality and Validity of European Patents)
Nobody in Europe voted for any of this
Links 29/05/2025: US Health Deficit and Malware Disguised as Slop Generator
Links for the day
Links 29/05/2025: Turtle Roadkill, Modern 'Tech' as a Sting
Links for the day
Thanks for All the Fish, Linux Format
people who once wrote for it (or for other magazines) comment on the importance of this news
People's Understanding of the History of GNU/Linux is Changing
RMS is not a radical, he's just clever enough to see and foresee what's going on
Microsofters Were Scheming to Take Over This Entire Web Site (in Their Own Words!)
Money gets spent censoring/deplatforming people who speak about real issues; no money gets spent actually tackling those underlying issues
Bicycles for the Minds and the Story Harrison Bergeron
"The goal of having people in charge of the tools they use and that the tools should amplify ability" has long been abandoned
Links 29/05/2025: YouTube Problem and Giant Privacy Hole in Microsoft OneDrive
Links for the day
[Video] Cory Doctorow Explains DMCA: DRM in the Browser (or Webapp) Will "Make It a Felony to Protect Your Privacy While You Use It."
Pycon US Keynote Speaker Cory Doctorow
United States Courts With Sworn Testimonies Are on Our Side, We'll Present the Same Here
Chronicling what happened is a moral imperative
Serial Sloppers Ruin and Lessen the Incentive to Cover "Linux"
The Serial Sloppers (SSs) ought to be named and shamed, but almost nobody does this
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 28, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Links 28/05/2025: 'Emulation Layers' (Measurements and Linguistics), Libraries, and Discomfort
Links for the day
Links 28/05/2025: More Arrests for Bitcoin-Connected Torture and Prosecutions for Dieselgate-Linked Executives
Links for the day
Even Microsoft (MSN) Covers Richard Stallman's Public Talk in Milan 2 Days Ago
He spoke in Spanish earlier this month (Alicante)
Gemini Links 28/05/2025: Techo-authoritarianism With Slop Plagiarism and "No Online June" (Going Offline)
Links for the day
Links 28/05/2025: GitHub MCP Exploited and MathWorks Discovers Huge Windows TCO
Links for the day
Very High Attendance Level at Richard Stallman's Talk Shows People Can Relate to His Message
Smear campaigns have their limits
Gemini Links 28/05/2025: Celsius-Fahrenheit, Endless Scrolling/Infinite Scrolling, and Trapping LLM Slop Bots
Links for the day
Prison gate backdrop to baptism by Fr Sean O'Connell, St Paul's, Coburg
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
More Photos From This Week's Milan Talk by Richard Stallman
The posts are in Italian, not English
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 27, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 27, 2025