Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO is Still a Software Patents Propaganda Machine and Thus an Enemy of Software Developers in Europe

Speaking as a software developer myself...

Guerra al Capitol



Summary: What today's EPO boils down to is a boil on the face of programmers because it lacks the tact to even shallowly hide its eagerness to grant patents on algorithms in defiance of everything from common sense to law and caselaw

IT IS hardly a secret that the European Patent Office (EPO) nowadays works for patent trolls and massive companies, so half a dozen times week it must pretend that it exists "for SMEs" (here is an example from yesterday; there was another one earlier today and we'll say more about that in our next post). Unlike the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the EPO cannot be sued and it effectively operates outside the law, so who can put an end to injustices? Apparently nobody. And nothing. Not even the highest court next to a bunch of international courts on Dutch territories. What is going on? How can Battistelli and Campinos keep promoting software patents in Europe even though courts, Parliament, the public and so on all oppose that? Therein lies one problem among many with the EPO. Examiners, we might add, are well aware of this problem. They are sufferers, not benefactors, unlike their managers.



"Examiners, we might add, are well aware of this problem. They are sufferers, not benefactors, unlike their managers."Cutting straight to the chase, this post is an outline of new examples of the EPO promoting software patents. Of course they cleverly dodge this term, as does the USPTO. Mark Nowotarski, over at Watchtroll (combative pro-software patents site), published the following headline this week: "AI Patents Make a Comeback at USPTO, Finance Patents Are Still Struggling"

Familiar? They too misuse the term "AI", just like the EPO. He just means software patents, but they're being disguised as "AI"; courts would toss these patents straight in the trash if they got asserted in courts.

Decline in quality of European Patents is a real thing. It's a thing. It's real! Earlier today I reread the latest nonsense from Campinos, in which he made up some laughable claims of improvement in quality; he didn't even name the methods. Nothing. Some very precise number was named without anything to back that up. Nothing.

Here comes Battistelli's French 'economist', who has been promoting software patents under the guise of "4IR", even in the Gazette. This is what the EPO said about him today: "Yann Meniere, chief economist of the ⁦ @EPOorg⁩, delivering the opening keynote of today’s #IPBCEurope in front of a sell-out crowd in Paris. pic.twitter.com/NqpvBIPbmo"

"He just means software patents, but they're being disguised as "AI"; courts would toss these patents straight in the trash if they got asserted in courts."And yesterday the EPO wrote the following about him (see image): "China and the Republic of Korea are growing particularly strongly in ICT-related patent applications at the EPO."

Well, "ICT-related patent applications" are just software patents that the EPO's examiners must not grant if they follow the EPC rather than their management (which flagrantly violates the EPC). So the supposed growth is faked.

The EPO has also just named "medtech" again, in relation to a conference that promotes software patents as "medical" and "for SMEs" (we wrote about it many times before). The EPO asked: Which #medtech inventions can be patented and what are some effective IP strategies to optimise their commercialisation? We'll be discussing that and more here: https://bit.ly/2E5l03D" (the link makes it abundantly clear that algorithms are involved).

"These people openly promote software patents in Europe and the EPO not only links to Watchtroll but also does exclusive interviews with Watchtroll -- a truly disturbing tactical decision."Meanwhile (also today) Watchtroll has advertised a new "webinar" that promotes software patent in Europe by calling these "Computer Implemented Inventions"; behind the stunt there's a familiar large law firm -- one we wrote about many times before -- and this is their abstract: "Under EPO practice considerations for what is technical and what is not technical are intrinsically bound up with assessment of inventive step: the problem to be solved must be technical and only technical features can contribute to inventive step. In addition, the Boards of Appeal have on occasion attributed a high level of skill to the person skilled in the art in the field of computer science. In this webinar, we will discuss the latest EPO case law on separating the technical from the non-technical and inventive step issues arising in specific areas of technology, such as machine learning and simulation."

As Benjamin Henrion noted, this is their agenda:

* The “notional business person” and her role in examining claims * Effective arguments for inventive step * Machine learning inventions * Inventions using blockchains or distributed ledgers * Simulation and modelling, including the recent referral to the Enlarged Board of Appeal

We wrote about that last item about half a dozen times this month. Will all software patents be voided? Not likely due to lack of independence and thus deficient impartiality.

EPO management controls everything, even judges.

These people openly promote software patents in Europe and the EPO not only links to Watchtroll but also does exclusive interviews with Watchtroll -- a truly disturbing tactical decision. The EPO is actively liaising with people who attack judges whose rulings are prohibitive (e.g. on software patents). When it comes to assessing patent quality, the EPO bribes publishers like IAM and then cites IAM 'studies' or 'surveys' that celebrate EPO 'quality'. This is what the EPO has become. Is it broken and corrupt beyond repair?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Even Microsoft (MSN) Covers Richard Stallman's Public Talk in Milan 2 Days Ago
He spoke in Spanish earlier this month (Alicante)
Very High Attendance Level at Richard Stallman's Talk Shows People Can Relate to His Message
Smear campaigns have their limits
 
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
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
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
Gemini Links 28/05/2025: Celsius-Fahrenheit, Endless Scrolling/Infinite Scrolling, and Trapping LLM Slop Bots
Links for the day
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
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
Links 27/05/2025: Science Defunded, India Arrests an Academic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/05/2025: From Celsius to Fahrenheit and Deleting Social Control Media
Links for the day
Microsofters Have, in Effect, Attempted Extrajudicial Action Against Us
Courts and Judges (or Masters) don't exist to facilitate this kind of "bro" culture
UK High Court Masters Are Not Your Jesters, Microsoft
Judges aren't there for "funny" spectacles, they're there to act as arbiters in critical cases, not SLAPPs
Links 27/05/2025: Mass Layoffs at Volvo and More Evidence of 'AI' (Slop) Being a Passing Fad
Links for the day
The Code of Conduct (CoC) Gaslighting Phenomenon
There are still many people and projects foolish enough to outsource their labour to Microsoft via GitHub
They're Very Jealous of Richard Stallman and His Freedom (or Simple Lifestyle)
Jealousy is toxic because it can cause rational people to act irrationally and even severely harm themselves
Akira Urushibata on GNU coreutils
new message
Anouk Rozestraten (Deputy Director) Appears to Have Left the Free Software Foundation
Let's hope Rozestraten is still using and promoting Free software
There's Nothing Funny About Lawbreaking
There's plenty of room in society for humour, but "hacking" the state by breaking laws isn't cool or hip
More Mass Layoffs Coming Soon to Microsoft, Just a Question of When and How Many
Numbers from Washington were close to 5% and judging by prior rumours, it would be 5% + 5% (total 10%) at a later month
Links 27/05/2025: Bikes, Ideal Computers, and BYO
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 26, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, May 26, 2025
Richard Stallman's Milan Talk (Public Presentation) Was Packed, Video Available Soon
Looks like they even ran out of seats
Gemini Links 26/05/2025: Intangible Stuff and Slop Issues
Links for the day
The Openwashing Shills Initiative (OSI) - Part I: Complaints to IRS or USDOJ Needed
If enough people do it, this will be more effective, more so if people who are based in the US do it
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Lobbying and the OSI's Status at Stake
At the end we plan to summarise all the issues in one very long article
Breaking Into Other People's Devices Without Authorisation Isn't "Funny" or "Research"
“Chaos was the law of nature; order was the dream of man.”
The Issue Isn't the Internet, the Issue is How People Are Taught to Use or Misuse It
The Web is circling down the drain. The Internet is not.
A Healed Reputation of a Movement's Leader and His Robust Message
The more aggressively you push against resistors, the more credibility they will gain
Links 26/05/2025: Deletions from Microsoft's GitHub, Telegram Blocked in Vietnam
Links for the day
Linux Released Last Night and There's Already LLM Slop With Slop Images
BetaNoise does not seem to mind this anymore
Links 26/05/2025: Walmart Layoffs and DRM Dumpster Fire ('Old' Fire TV Devices Lose Netflix Access)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/05/2025: USB Camera Viewer and Fantasy Life
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 25, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 25, 2025