Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Becoming Like China is Something to Worry About, Not Something to Celebrate

The emergent home of patent trolls is something to remain as distant as possible from

China's patent trolls
Chinese media on patent trolls
From last month's article by Bing Zhao



Summary: The EPO has nothing to brag about except growing 'demand' from China (patent applications numbers are down in most other nations) and media is doing a copy-paste of the EPO's 'press release'

YESTERDAY, not to our surprise, World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR) decided to join in as a stenographer (among other stenographers), parroting the EPO's 'press release' rather than doing any investigative work. It's easier to just copy-paste some 'prepared' Battistelli quotes than to actually research the underlying facts. We are pretty certain that the EPO's PR people (Rainer, Jana Mittermaier and external help) were responsible for this. We already heard how that works.



"It's easier to just copy-paste some 'prepared' Battistelli quotes than to actually research the underlying facts."What was the 'story' about? Well, it was just a 'press release' retitled "EPO and SIPO renew patent cooperation" (i.e. nothing really changes). As a hallmark of corruption, last year Battistelli brought the Chinese officials to his home town where he works as a politician. He's not even good at hiding his motivations and eternal mischief. Maybe he became blind to it as it became so routine.

Either way, the patent trolls' megaphone (and Battistelli's megaphone, which is an overlapping task) decided to revisit the situation in China, having recently hired Chinese staff (because that's where patent trolls go nowadays).

China is burdening itself with a trap that will bring nothing but patent trolls [1, 2, 3] and less than a day ago IAM wrote:

In a speech that garnered a lot of attention around the world, the Chinese president declared that: “Wrongdoing should be punished more severely so that IP infringers will pay a heavy price.” More recently, IP got one mention in Xi’s marathon 19th Party Congress speech last month, as he called for China to become a “country of innovators” and create a “market-oriented system for technological innovation”.


For the time being, President Xi's vision (or "priority list") seems to be lots and lots of patent trolls. Urging for people to apply for patents by the millions isn't going to make a “country of innovators” but a country of litigation. This is already happening and it's not at all desirable. Perhaps if China had a multi-party system -- i.e. not a single person held all the power (Xi) -- saner patent policy would be chosen.

"Perhaps if China had a multi-party system -- i.e. not a single person held all the power (Xi) -- saner patent policy would be chosen."Another country where there's a de facto single-party system (PAP) that has ruled for about half a century (it actively attacks political opposition/dissent) has gotten a similar problem. We are talking about Singapore, whose recently-deceased leader emulated China's autocracy and at times hailed crackdown on protests. Singapore's patent trolls problem was covered here earlier this year and yesterday Lexology said that "[c]laims to software [in Singapore] that are characterised only by source code and not by any technical feature" are not patentable..."

There are loopholes, however, and they're described below:

To what extent can inventions covering software be patented?

Claims to software that are characterised only by source code and not by any technical feature cannot be considered an invention on the basis that the actual contribution would be a mere presentation of information.

However, computer programs may be patentable if the invention involves a technical contribution outside the excluded subject matter.

To what extent can inventions covering business methods be patented?

Pure business methods are not considered inventions and are not patentable. However, similar to computer programs, business methods may be patentable if they involve technical contributions outside the excluded subject matter. For example, claims relating to a computer-implemented business method would be considered an invention if the technical features (eg, servers, databases and user devices) interact with the steps of the business method to a material extent and in such a manner as to overcome a specific problem.

To what extent can inventions relating to stem cells be patented?

The Patents Act contains no specific provisions barring stem cells from patentability. Inventions determined by the examiner to fall within the list of acts prohibited by the Human Cloning and Other Prohibited Practices Act will be objected to.


China, unlike Singapore, has pretty much no restrictions on software patents (not anymore, the bars were lowered earlier this year), which makes it similar to the chaos caused by and promoted by Grant Philpott at the EPO (they just call it "CII" instead of software patents).

Are SIPO and EPO going to become a controversial pair whose lowered patent quality will have them characterised as worthless? If the EPO going to transform to mere registration or pure automation a la INPI? Whatever it is, the EPO looks like a shadow of its former self and it's the fault of Battistelli's policies. Only God (or Buddha) can save the EPO now...

Recent Techrights' Posts

“Twibel” Actions Against Comedians (and Why It's a Truly Low Blow)
they try to make up in quantities for a lack of merit or quality
Rewriting Things in Rust
How far would you go?
What Microsoft Reputation Laundering (With a Weaponised Law Degree) Looks Like in a Foreign Continent
You would expect this in uncivilised and primitive countries
Slopwatch: LLMs 'Write' Fake or Distorted 'News' About "Linux"
LLM slop disguised as news
 
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.
Linux Foundation Apparently Flirting With Slop (Marketing by LLM-Generated SPAM)
The Web is in a really bad state!
COVID-19 Sped Up Site Improvements in Techrights
A few months later we created our very own IRC network
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: Negative Questions and 'Touching Grass' (Going Outside)
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Dalai Lama Succession as 90th Birthday Approaches, 40 deg C in China
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Hungary and US Defecting to Russia, "Google's Hotseat Hypocrisy"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: 4th of July 2025 and "Zig Roadmap 2026"
Links for the day
How to Combat the Exploitation and Abuse by Microsoft GitHub
Not to mention corruption and crimes against women
Bryan Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People
"[Lunduke] is actually sending his audience to attack people."
Even The Right Wing is Rejecting Bryan Lunduke
no wonder he became so irrelevant and marginal
Microsoft's MSN Helps Microsoft Spread Lies About the Layoffs' Scale (Well Over 25,000 People Laid Off This Year)
There seem to be monopolies on lies and on truth
The Death of X Has Been Greatly Exaggerated (by Compromised Media)
X.Org Server is alive and well
In 2025 Everything is "AI". Remember Blockchains?
Talk about what companies and things (services, products, software) actually do, not the labels they use
Julian Assange Has Been Free for a Year
Julian Assange and I disagreed on some things
Monopolies and Scalping
Monopolies gravitate towards price hikes
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 04, 2025
Microsoft's August Layoffs Wave: "August is Confirmed for Additional Performance Based Cuts"
"August is confirmed for additional performance based cuts from the recent connects along with additional organizational cuts."
Links 04/07/2025: Google Replaces the Web With Slop, "AI Might Kill Us All"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: Mindfulness and F1
Links for the day
Weeks After Microsoft Bankruptcy in Russia the Company Shuts Down in Pakistan, Too
Last month Windows' share in Pakistan fell to an all-time low
Rob Musial's June 2025 Additions of Malware in Proprietary Software
Via the GNU Web site this week
Links 04/07/2025: Microsoft's H-1B Visa Applications Show Another Crisis Unfolding, Many More Deep Cuts and Shutdowns Revealed, Complete Microsoft Exits
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: A Day To Remember and "Stop Killing Games"
Links for the day
Crime and Corruption at Microsoft GitHub Cannot be Covered Up by SLAPPs in Another Continent
We'll write about this for a long time to come
Slop Videos Are Disappointing Garbage, Nothing New, Just Brute Force up on Display or a Pedestal of Slop
Slop videos aren't a new thing
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 03, 2025
The War on Local Storage (People Hosting Their Files Locally and Privately)
There's nothing wrong with controlling one's computing
What Digital Independence Means
Independence in the digital realms means abandoning platforms like GitHub, not just rejecting proprietary software
NVidia is a Bubble
they temporarily see fortunes and wrongly assume perpetuity thereof
Fedora Does Not Care About Diversity and Inclusion, It's About Optics (Corporate Image)
any notion of inclusion is superficial and misleading
Don't Buy the Excuses for Microsoft's Mass Layoffs
Back in the 90s, Microsoft bought a lot of companies to get and stay ahead