A fish rots from the head down(wards)

Summary: EPO President António Campinos -- like Iancu at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) -- is still promoting software patents in Europe even though such patents are clearly detrimental to Europe's interests

THE LAW (or the rule of law) and the interests of Europe do not matter to the EPO. All the EPO cares about is making money (for itself). That money is in turn being misused, e.g. 'smuggled' to the bank accounts of EPO officials and their relatives, colleagues elsewhere, friends...

"Remember that today's EPO is all about money. Just money."The EPO, suffice to say, is often acting more like a crime syndicate than a patent office. It's a nice "cover" though.

Remember that today's EPO is all about money. Just money. Management of the European Patent Office/Organisation (EPO) is pressuring examiners not to do their job properly but only fast, with particular numbers of "products" reached (otherwise it's "incompetence" and may lead to unemployment).

What do lawyers and attorneys have to say? Not much. They can't complain much. More patents mean more money for them, too. Unless this whole system collapses at a later stage (which is the only thing that sometimes worries them). They keep selling us the lie that under Campinos everything is back to normal and everything is fine. They strive for stability in patent maximalism, human rights be damned.

“It’s basically a lawyers‘ lobbying entity and obviously they love Iancu.”
      --Patent bloggerIn "Mission Impossible? How to Effectively Draft the Background Section of a Patent Specification in Compliance with Both USPTO and EPO Practice" Enrica Bruno now gives tips for tricking examiners. Watchtroll is a toxic site, so such articles are a perfect fit. "Enrica Bruno is the founder and managing partner of Steinfl + Bruno LLP," the bio says. "Enrica is an EPO-qualified U.S. Patent Attorney..."

Moreover, yesterday morning Patent Docs published yet more ads (which make up the majority of the blog nowadays), including Strafford's "Webinar on Drafting Software Patents" that says:

Strafford will be offering a webinar entitled "Drafting Software Patents to Survive Section 101 and AIA Challenges -- Anticipating and Minimizing the Risk of 101, 103 Rejections, Recent Court Guidance" on March 20, 2019 from 1:00 to 2:30 pm (EDT).

Rather than accept the stance of SCOTUS, which is repeatedly 'affirmed' from the bottom at the Federal Circuit and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), the patent maximalists are looking for yet more workarounds. Are they pursuing honest legal conduct or just trickery? The same question can be asked about the EPO's (mis)interpretation of the EPC.

We see that Watchtroll's latest article is promoting patents on life or patent monopolies on human genetics in "Post-Myriad Legal and Policy Considerations for Patenting Genetic Inventions" (Myriad is related to Alice and Mayo in ۤ 101, more so the latter).

A reader has meanwhile sent us this headsup on "Licensing Executives Society's take on Alice," which can be found here. Like others in the patent microcosm they are trying to solicit more letters and calling every single letter which opposes software patents "EFF" (as if only the EFF opposes these!).

"It’s basically a lawyers‘ lobbying entity and obviously they love Iancu," someone has told me, stating that he would spend more time covering this issue. LES and LESI are mates with Campinos, who met with them on the same journey undertaken to meet Iancu just weeks ago. As reported last month:

The European Patent Office has signed a bilateral cooperation agreement with the Licensing Executives Society International (LESI).

We already wrote (at the time) why this should be interpreted as Campinos being 'in bed' with the patent trolls' lobby rather than science and technology -- a worrying but consistent trend from him. Europe's future will suffer greatly from this man and the person who gave him the job (Battistelli) in another grotesque act of nepotism. ⬆