THE António Campinos-led European Patent Office (EPO) is not popular, not even among its own workers. Campinos lost goodwill/faith (trust from staff) a lot faster than Battistelli lost it. What took Battistelli years to 'accomplish' Campinos nowadays 'accomplishes' in only months. It's not helping that EPO staff knows Battistelli rigged the 'election' in his compatriot's favour.
"Campinos lost goodwill/faith (trust from staff) a lot faster than Battistelli lost it."SUEPO's "March 2019 press articles" collection has just added the EPSU General Circular Nð5 [PDF]. We interpret this as SUEPO, with little or no words of its own (speech is barely permitted), inviting its thousands of members to consider attending. To quote the letter:
European Federation of Public Service Union
EPSU General Circular Nð5 (2019) To all EPSU affiliates To all EPSU Statutory Committees and Networks members Contact Person: Jan Willem Goudriaan
March for a Fairer Europe for Worker
Just transitions, quality jobs and higher wages, democracy and social justic
26 April 2019, Brussels
(letter being translated FR/DE/ES/SV/RU)
Dear Colleagues,
The ETUC, the European Trade Union Confederation will organise together with the Belgian unions a Euro-demo in Brussels on 26 April. The demonstration is to underline the demands of the ETUC for the European Parliament elections (23-26 May).
It is a step in the work unions across Europe are doing to ensure we have the political support for a fairer Europe for workers and our communities following the elections. You are kindly invited to send a delegation of your union to this demo and join the EPSU block/ group. Your presence in the demonstration can be an element in the mobilizing your union is doing in support for the trade union demands for the EP elections. For us it is a good opportunity to underline that we need an end to austerity policies and that we need more investment in public services and in the quality of the services workers want to provide. The demo will start at 10:30 in Place du Luxembourg this is in front of the European Parliament and then go to the Council and Commission buildings. More information will follow. And do not hesitate to contact your confederation.
So please let us know if your union will be in a position to send delegates to the demo and join all of us in the EPSU block. It would be an important demonstration of our joint demands. To register your delegation please inform cboeckx@epsu.org
We look forward to meet you or your colleagues.
In Solidarity, Jan Willem GOUDRIAAN EPSU General Secretary
"EPSU is no stranger to the EPO sandals, which it wrote about in the past."We've noticed that SUEPO has also just added translations for "Kurioser Streit ums Europäische Patentamt entbrannt". Was the publisher, Handelsblatt, not paid enough money by Battistelli? Not enough to keep it totally silent about the corruption? Last year it was paid by the EPO's management to promote buzzwords for software patents in Europe, but now it writes something critical. It would be great if someone with access to SUEPO's circulation could send us the English translation of this Handelsblatt article by Heike Anger because what SUEPO published [PDF] is access-restricted.
Speaking of buzzwords that add a veneer of "innovation" to bogus software patents (e.g. "4IR"), for two days in a row (yesterday and the day earlier) the EPO called software patents "medtech" again [1, 2]. First it said "Hear MedTech SMEs' success stories at our upcoming event in Sweden" and later it said "Last chance to register for our event in Lund, Sweden, on computer-implemented inventions in #Medtech..." (this time the PR people used the term CII more explicitly, like in the cited page).
"The US patent system -- like today's EPO -- favours the few billionaires who no longer get an easy time in courts."The sad thing is that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which continues to grant software patents in defiance of US courts, nowadays uses some of the same buzzwords the EPO created and 'popularised' (by paying publishers such as Handelsblatt). We recently saw "CII" in relation to the US, not just "AI". And considering the fact that the EPO nowadays liaises with Watchtroll, this is only likely to get yet worse. Watchtroll is an extremely nasty site that attacks judges. 2 days ago it was once again leveraging fear of China to sell patent maximalism (it is no better then using Russophobia to promote militarism and aggression). On the same day the editor (the new one) said in her headline "Patent Masters’ Warning: U.S. Patents are Weak, Innovation is Going Overseas" (by "patent masters" she meant patent maximalists, who invert the facts; weak means strong).
"The said changes aren't coming as Iancu cannot change how courts rule on patents; unlike Battistelli, he cannot attack judges (even Battistelli did this illegally)."Then there was Kristin Murphy's "China Court Delivers First Judgment in Favor of a Foreign Company Under Anti-Unfair Competition Law" and Watchtroll's founder came back to say "America’s Patent System Favors the Few and Inhibits Innovation—But Change Could Be Coming" (alluding to Iancu, the 'American Battistelli'). The US patent system -- like today's EPO -- favours the few billionaires who no longer get an easy time in courts. More so American courts. The said changes aren't coming as Iancu cannot change how courts rule on patents; unlike Battistelli, he cannot attack judges (even Battistelli did this illegally). But Watchtroll can do this for him. "‘Bad Patents’ Are Just Another Big Tech False Narrative," says the latest headline from Watchtroll's Paul Morinville, who is just upset because the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) makes his software patents worthless (35 U.S.C. ç 101). The truth of the matter is that "bad patents" is just a synonyms for (or allusion to) software patents which should never have been granted in the first time. They're objectively, by definition, bad. The law wasn't followed and as a result many bogus patents got granted. Now they're being taken away, as they ought to. ⬆