Bonum Certa Men Certa

The European Patent Office No Longer Acts Like a Patent Office But a Prosecutor

Prosecution 'industry' served, not the real industry

Prosecution



Summary: With Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), Unitary Patent (UPC) and “early certainty” it seems clear that the EPO's objectives are not aligned with those representative of a proper, functioning patent office

THE EPO continues trying -- however futile this effort may seem -- to distract from any meaningful discussion about the crisis. The "SME" nonsense (not a new thing), for example, was repeated once again yesterday. It was repeated pretty much every single day in November. "How can a business leverage the power of patents and other IP rights to achieve business success?" Those are the sorts of loaded questions brought up every day by the EPO. It has become too tiring to even bother responding to them.



"The UPC is going nowhere, but Bristows keeps spreading fake news about it.""The objective of the study," wrote the EPO in another tweet, "is to assess the role played by the current European patent system," linking to the so-called 'study' which is not objective and has already been debunked. It's the EPO-commissioned propaganda for the EPO and its UPC lobby.

Two days ago we wrote about the latest fake news about the UPC. Check out this comment that says "K. Mooney, W. Pors and consorts have been ridden by an illness called "wishful thinking"."

To quote the whole comment (JJ is Jo Johnson):

When JJ is talking about negotiations re post Brexit stay of the UK in the UPC, it clearly means that all those claiming that the stay is easy to obtain (K. Mooney, W. Pors and consorts) have been ridden by an illness called "wishful thinking".

It is understandable that they see big profits flowing away, so that self illusion is an attempt to overcome the loss. The more so since they have invested a lot of time and efforts in devising the RoP of the UPC.

It would be better if they would come back to reality rather than trying to pull wool over our eyes!



The UPC is going nowhere, but Bristows keeps spreading fake news about it. Yesterday it wrote about Belgium. This is nothing noteworthy (of progress); it's a meaningless move, as Belgium has, by Bristows' own admission, "already ratified the UPC Agreement, and has made a declaration regarding its provisional application."

"The agenda of the EPO, as set in stone by the UPC, is worse than malignant. It may be fatal to Europe's producing industries (as opposed to some law firms in England and Germany)."Quite frankly, it no longer surprises us that Team UPC and Team Battistelli are lying so much. Both are rife with abuse. Check out yesterday's EPO puff piece about Brazil and Tunisia (warning: epo.org link), former Portuguese and French colonies, respectively (the next EPO President is a dual Portuguese/French national, as we noted in relation to the validation agreements with Tunisia and Angola, another former Portuguese colony where his father had been born).

This time it's about the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), which speeds up examination at the expense of meticulous analysis. To quote the EPO: "Two major [sic] agreements signed by the EPO with Brazil and Tunisia will enter into force today. The agreements will mean new services for companies and inventors from Europe and the two countries and support innovation through legally robust patents."

How many European Patents even come from Tunisia? How many patent applications? Brazil, in spite of its large population side, isn't so major a player either. So for the EPO to call these "major agreements" with a straight face? Come on...

As someone pointed out in the 14th and last comment this week:

Even it might be legal, it is simply unbelievable to go from the much heralded “early certainty” into “long term uncertainty”.

If it should be necessary it shows how badly the EPO is managed!

The document linked to by head down is a paper introduced in 2009 by 3 member states two of which,DE and NL had deferred examination. It was an attempt to resolve the backlog problem, may be a first instance level, but does not work at the BA level.

If files are under deferred examination, they will not any longer appear in the statistics. This a clear attempt to cheat, as the secret hope is that lot of these applications will be withdrawn at one moment or the other.

It is not sure that the member state will be willing to wait to have their share of the renewal fees.

Wait and see if the new chairman of the AC will accept to put the proposal of the agenda of the AC. Bad management should be sanctioned, certainly not encouraged!


This relates to the UPC in the sense that the envisioned system passes or 'offloads' the task of proper patent examination to courts, where fees are humongous and the language spoken may not been understood at all by the defendants.

The agenda of the EPO, as set in stone by the UPC, is worse than malignant. It may be fatal to Europe's producing industries (as opposed to some law firms in England and Germany). The "official languages", which oddly enough include French but not Spanish, tell quite a lot about who would literally profit from the destruction of one's own national scientific sector.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Gemini Links 11/01/2026: Scott Morgan and 'The Unix Way'
Links for the day
IBM to Be 'Reorganised'
The rich look for ways to 'monetise' what's left IBM
Dr. Andy Farnell Explains Why He'll Stop Sending E-mail to Microsoft and Gmail Users
The article is long and well worth reading
GNOME Foundation's Microsoft Developer Account
"Lately they're teaming up with Mozilla to eliminate middle click paste - something which I use continuously."
Links 10/01/2026: "Abolish ICE or GTFO", Calls to Ban X/Twitter From Apple/Google App Stores (or Implement National Blocks) Over MElon Turning It Into Non-consensual Deepfake Porn Site
Links for the day
EPO People Power - Part XXX - New Year Starts, Cocainegate Still Discussed a Lot, António Campinos Desperate for Distraction From It
Why the sudden change or 'generosity'? [...] Actual cocaine addicts caused nervous breakdowns among sober people
 
Links 11/01/2026: Bob Weir and Stewart Cheifet Perish
Links for the day
Higher Adoption Rates of GNU/Linux in Cyprus in Recent Years
there are some Cypriots who are championing Free software
Microsoft's linkedin.com is Shrinking, Expect LinkedIn Layoffs to Carry on in 2026
Expect the mass layoffs and office closures to carry on there, maybe as early as next week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, January 10, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, January 10, 2026
Monday, January 12, Red Hat Layoffs Allegedly Planned
We'll update this post or follow up if or when we get more information
Slop Still Becoming Rare as Another Week Ends
Generally speaking, calm and quiet is desirable, it's what we hope for (an absence of slop, a lack of need to keep abreast of it, ultimately)
Links 10/01/2026: Iran Offline, Venezuelans Decry Civilian Casualties
Links for the day
GAFAM Wants War
Go war! Go bailouts! Go debt! Go Wall Street!
GNU/Linux and Chromebooks Rose to Almost 10% in Haiti
What's noteworthy is that this month GNU/Linux is measured at around 8% and ChromeOS at about 2%
2026 Might be the Year Microsoft Replaces Layoffs With Mass Firings (No Severance Payments to Dismissed Staff)
It's hard to "see" PIPs unless insiders blow the whistle
IBM and Microsoft Hiding Layoffs in Similar, Overlapping Ways
Performance Improvement Plans aplenty
IBM is a Cancer That Attaches Itself to Everything
Red Hat should have remained an independent company
Links 10/01/2026: STV Layoffs (Scottish TV), “CBS Evening News” in Chaos (Culls and Censorship by the US Regime)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, January 09, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, January 09, 2026
Gemini Links 10/01/2026: Blackout, E-Waste, and Secondary Smartphone
Links for the day
Plot Twist: Microsoft MSN Relays Articles Hinting at or Pointing to Mass Layoffs Soon, Other Gossip
the narrative from Microsoft's "PR bunny" (Shaw) is showing mold already
Links 09/01/2026: Google and Character.AI Implicitly Accept Chatbots Kill Kids and GLP-1 ‘Slimming Pens’ Turn Out to be a Lot Worse Than Advertised
Links for the day
'Vibe Coding' is Not "AI", It's a Sewer, It is Junk
Linus Torvalds was wrong. 'Vibe coding' isn't good for anything.
GNU/Linux May be Approaching 10% "Market Share" in Montenegro
The surge started around 2021
At IBM, "Employee Reviews" (or Appraisals in the UK) Are a "Trojan Horse" for RAs (Mass Layoffs), a Waste of Time
comments from IBMer serve to suggest that appraisals can be precursors
Links 09/01/2026: Technical Blogging Lessons Learned and Google's Gmail Getting a Lot Worse
Links for the day
More IBM Layoffs in India
If IBM cannot afford to retain workers in India, then something is truly "out of control" at IBM
Escaping GAFAM Colonialism Requires Homegrown Free Software
GNU/Linux now measured at 3% in Zambia
Dr. Richard Stallman Has Done No Harm to the GNU Project or the FSF (He Had Benefited Both, Always, Even After the Attacks on Him Began)
Some people try to prevent Dr. Stallman from speaking or having a platform where many people can hear him
GNU/Linux at 4% in Saudi Arabia, Says statCounter
Some years ago Windows fell to a "market share" of just 11% there
Microsoft Isn't Denying the Mass Layoffs
Still silence from Microsoft
In Western Africa GNU/Linux Flirts With 5% Market Share
there's a gradual increase in GNU/Linux usage there
Gemini Links 09/01/2026: Pro1 X Repair and the Mercury Protocol
Links for the day
Links 09/01/2026: Cambodia and China Extradition, "NATO’s High-risk Patrols Near Ukraine"
Links for the day
No, Microsoft Did Not Deny the Q1 Mass Layoffs (Microsoft Can Delay These)
Maybe they disperse or delay the layoffs (changing plans), but the layoffs are going to happen
Only One Person in Charge of Fedora is Not IBM Staff
This is not a community project, it's just a way for IBM to onboard unpaid volunteers
This Is Not a Drill, GNU/Linux is Really Going 'Mainstream' on Laptops (and Desktops)
It is important to explain to people software freedom
IBM Albany Layoffs
not only did many in the site lose their job; there's more to come "and likely another one in February" (weeks from now)
EPO Workers' Industrial Action to Include Many Strikes, to Last Several Months
In some ways, The Hague and Bavaria are becoming almost indistinguishable from Moscow
EPO People Power - Part XXIX - Getting DER SPIEGEL, FAZ, Deutschlandfunk and Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) to Cover EPO Scandals
We kindly ask our readers to contact their local media and urge it to cover the scandals
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 08, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, January 08, 2026