Bonum Certa Men Certa

Who Does the Legal System Really Serve or Favour in European Patent Disputes?

People like myself are being denied access to the underlying facts

Florian on Ericsson
Image credit: Florian Müller



Summary: People who oppose software patents are being denied access to the courts, the media and so on; the EPO keeps getting away with serving patent trolls, e.g. those that are connected to large companies such as Ericsson (as above)

THE existence of software patents in Europe is a threat to all programmers. Why are they being granted? It's illegal. The European Patent Office (EPO) has not had a scientist as President for over a decade now. António Campinos is a former banker, Battistelli is a politician and Brimelow is regarded or considered to be a public servant (vague term). This is a problem because it means that people with no clue are responsible for bad decisions, having perhaps been instructed by (or consulted) law firms, legal departments, and even patent trolls. They barely ever meet any scientists. It's like they don't care about the impact of patents on science and technology -- an impact which is rather intricate.



"It’s like they don’t care about the impact of patents on science and technology — an impact which is rather intricate."Yesterday, responding to this new post that said "IP [sic] has become ever more concentrated into the hands of capitalism’s high temple – the corporation," Australian attorney Mark Summerfield said: "Not only is this true, it is possible to track the transition historically."

He added the following, linking to his blog:

There is data on this in Australia, that I think may be unique globally. Last year I worked with IP Australia to generate data (using a machine learning system) going back over 100 years distinguishing between corporate and individual applicants. The results show a clear transition during the period between the first and second world wars, between dominance of individual applicants (i.e. the inventor as patentee) and corporate applicants (i.e. the employer as patentee).

I think that this data is fascinating, and I would love to see it linked to economic or sociological research. However, there does not seem to have been much interest in this to date.

An article presenting this data (with links to the source) can be found on my blog: https://blog.patentology.com.au/2018/05/new-data-released-by-ip-australia.html


This is a real problem. The patent system has been rigged.

Yesterday, for example, a famous patent blogger (Florian) wrote: "An Ericsson privateer named #OptisWireless opposed a petition I filed last year for access to a Federal Patent Court case file, arguing that I'm "a blogger known for positions critical of the #patent system." Court ruled in favor of my petition: screenshot #privateering #patents" (screenshot at the top).

Ericsson keeps a bunch of these patent trolls around. We wrote about these before. I happen to know that Florian attempted to crack open some more 'worm jars' (secret or scarcely-explored patent disputes in his country) only to be fought by corporate lawyers and judges, who are terrified by people like us, the critics and sceptics. No transparency. Florian had sent me some legal documents to show reactions. It would be jaw-dropping it I didn't already know that it is a system of powerful people; it's a system that discriminates against 'poor' 'activists', unlike greedy and monopoly-centric corporations. The above just serves to show what we patent realists face in a court of law.

Speaking of Ericsson, watch how the patent trolls' lobby (literally funded by trolls), a site called IAM, is publishing Ericsson propaganda (composed by Ericsson itself). They promote a large thicket of bogus patents, mostly software patents, wrapped up using buzzwords such as "IoT" (published Monday at 2PM). Ericsson tries to distance itself from the extortion, so it uses trolls in various parts of Europe to bully just about everyone, even Chinese companies. It's a protection racket.

Where does the EPO stand on all this? Well, yesterday it promoted software patents again, using hype waves as usual. "Over 300 participants from around the world attended our conference on #patentingblockchain," it said.

Benjamin Henrion looked at the cited document [PDF] and quoted "Klaus Haft, attorney-at-law at Hoyng Rokh Monegier, added that open source does not mean patent-free #blockchain #swpats …"

Software patents and "open source" (Free/libre software) can never coexist and they know it. IBM-centric and Microsoft-connected front groups lie to us about it.

Meanwhile, the EPO is also intentionally conflating inventions with patents. It does so every single day (almost) and yesterday it wrote: "This guide is intended to help you avoid many of the common mistakes associated with inventions" (they mean patents).

Words like "inventions" are commonly being misused by these people. Here is an example from yesterday (article titled "Pam Bryer: Scots have never lost the urge to invent"). The corporate media is really that awful* and it is not being composed by journalists.

The Scotsman is regularly used for patent propaganda (marketing/sales as "news"), usually from Marks & Clerk LLP. This includes software patents promotion and lawyers' lies about UPC prospects. We covered that before and named The Scotsman as a culprit. Generally, this so-called 'news' paper may be good in other sections, but by posting such crap it does its reputation a great disservice. In this case, patent extremists smear Scotland to cause Scots to come to their employer, Marks & Clerk LLP, and ask for patents (thinking it's the same as inventions). Just look at the insulting headline. It's worth noting that only at the very end the disclosure comes: "Pam Bryer is a patent attorney for Marks & Clerk LLP" (so it is marketing and should be labeled as such).

Novagraaf's Philippe Vigand has meanwhile written about the EPO getting another chance to eliminate software for good. "The EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal is to consider the patentability of computer-implemented inventions in the context of appeal T0489/14," he wrote. Will he mention that the appeals board lacks independence and may therefore not be able to judge impartially? An issue that the judges themselves keep complaining about? _____ * We've just noted the lack of coverage about EPO corruption. Due to an 'economic' nature of this greedy society and publication 'industry', a lot of so-called 'news' these days is just "tweets", ads, computer-generated crap, self-promotional nonsense and intentional falsehoods/fabrications with agenda in mind. Really bad state of affairs. Honesty may be dead.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Pushers of systemd Rewrite History (Richard Stallman Said UNIX "Was Portable and Seemed Fairly Clean")
Unlike systemd
Trajectory of The Register: From News Site/s Into "B2B"... and Into Microsoft Salespeople
Something isn't right at The Register
 
The Week to Come
Planning ahead
LLM Slop Has Only Been a Boon for Misinformation Online
The very same companies that were supposed to maintain quality (again, not limited to Google with PageRank) are now actively participating in generating and spreading slop
When They Tell You It's Free, Does That Mean No Charges (If So, Who's Paying and Why)?
there's "no free lunch"
We're Going to Focus Less on the Molotov Cocktail-Throwing Microsofters and More on Patents
We can get back to focusing on what we wanted to focus on all along
Just Trying to Keep Web Sites Honest (Journalistic Integrity)
the latest articles in LinuxIac are real
Links 27/07/2025: Political Affairs, Data Breaches, Attacks on Freedom of the Press
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: Hot in Japan and Terminal Escape Codes
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: More Microsoft Layoffs Coming, Science and Hardware News
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: FSF Hackathon and "Hulk Hogan Was a Very Bad Man"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: DAW Mixer Chains and Simple Software
Links for the day
The Register MS is Inventing or Giving Air Time to New Conspiracy Theories so as to Distort the Narrative As High-Profile Agencies Fall Prey to Microsoft Holes
But the problem is holes, i.e. Microsoft making bad products; the problem is Microsoft
Most Editors at The Register Are American, Including the Editor in Chief, a Decade-Long Microsoft Stenographer (Writing Prose to Sell Microsoft)
It's not easy to tell where the site is based (we tried) because it's hiding behind ClownFlare and CrimeFlare hasn't been well lately
"New Techrights" Soon Turns 2 (A Few Days Before the FSF Turns 40)
We have a lot more to say about LLM bots
When Silence Says So Much
Garrett, a 'secure' boot pusher, will need to defend himself in the UK High Court
The Register in Trouble
There is not much that can be done at this point
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 26, 2025
Misinformation in Social Control Media
Social control media passes around all sorts of tropes
Slopwatch: Fake Linux 'Articles' and Slopfarms With "Linux" in Their Names/Domains
throwing bots at "Linux" to make some fake articles
Links 26/07/2025: Amazon Shutdown in China, Russian Economy Slows
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: History of Time (1988) and Gemini Games
Links for the day
Links 26/07/2025: 50 Percent Tariffs in Amazon, Dying Intel Offloads Network and Edge Group (NEX)
Links for the day
Doing My Share to Tackle Online Slop and SPAM
Trying my best to 'fix' the Web
Blaming Programming Languages for Users' and Developers' Bad Practices
That's like blaming cars for drivers who crash into things
Slopwatch: Fakes, FUD, Duplicates, and Charlatans Galore
The Web as we once know it is collapsing. Some opportunists try to replace it with low-quality slop.
The Register UK Seems to Have Become American and Management is Changing (Microsofter as Editor in Chief)
The Register 'UK' is now controlled by the Directions on Microsoft guy
Many People Still Read Techrights Because It Says the Truth, Produces Evidence, and Does Not Self-Censor
Unlike so many other sites
The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register
I decided to check how they're doing as a business
Microsoft Finally Finds a Use Case for Slop?
Create low-quality chaff to shift the media's attention?
Microsoft Windows Lost 400 Million Users in a Few Years, Why Does The Register Double Down on Windows With New US Editor?
days ago they hired a new US editor
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 25, 2025
For Libel Reform One Must First Bring (or Raise) Awareness to the Issues and Their Magnitude
I myself know, from personal experience
Links 26/07/2025: Rationed Meals in the US and TikTok Repels Investments (Too Toxic)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: "Bloody Google" and New People in Geminispace
Links for the day
Response to Solderpunk (Father of Gemini Protocol) About the Gemini Community
Solderpunk responds to non-sequitur
HTML and the Web Used to be Something a Child Could Learn, "Modern" Web is a Puzzle of Frameworks, Bloat, and Worse
When the Web was more like Gemini Protocol
New US Editor in The Register is 84% Microsoft/Windows Booster
It'll be worrying if it carries on like this
Links 25/07/2025: Slop Blunders and China Has Code of Conduct for Lawmakers in HK
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Some Books and Babies and Capital
Links for the day
Links 25/07/2025: NOAA Cuts Endanger Lives, "Europe's Self Inflicted Cloud Crisis"
Links for the day
They Try to Lecture Us on Ethics
They even removed "master" from Microsoft GitHub
The Future of the Web is One Rendering Engine or 'Flavours' of Chrome
The future of the Web does not look bright at all
Best Sites Are Not Optimised for Any Browser, They Work Equally Well With All of Them
Red Hat (IBM) is making rubbish sites
YouTube is a Spamfarm, Slopfarm, and Clickfarm (a Lot of Numbers There Are Fake)
Those who don't fake look unpopular and unimportant
We Don't Do JavaScript and Pages Are Small
Thankfully Gemini Protocol has nothing like JavaScript
'Tech' is Not Technology
Some people use terms like 'Old Tech'
IBM's Debt Rose by Almost 10 Billion Dollars in the Past 6 Months Alone
The "hey hi" circus is coming to an end
Yes, Master
Gaslighting by actual racists
Microsoft Bribes and Buys Politicians to Tell Europe What to Do About Free Software (Which It's Attacking)
Microsoft: we speak for the thing that we are attacking! Follow the money...
Making Backups Quickly and Reliably
Backups are imperative, more so in an age of uncertainty, unpredictable weather, and worsening standards (quality of products going down while prices go up)
Techrights Investigation: Estimating the Point in Time LinuxIac Turned Into LLM Slop (Part of the Time)
Bobby Borisov got lazy
10th Month, Ten Weeks From Now, at Ten AM
In Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 24, 2025
A Nadella Memo Distracts From Microsoft's Cheapening Of the Workforce
Right now the "MSM" (mainstream media) is flooded/overwhelmed by garbage pieces that relay lies for Nadella
Vanishing Faces of GNU/Linux
Free software projects do not depend on any one person or company to still exist
Microsoft Says It Lost 400 Million Windows Users, Now It's Waiting for GNU/Linux to Stop Booting on 'Old' PCs
When it comes to Windows, Microsoft is fully aware of the issue and statements it made earlier this summer suggest it lost 400 million Windows users
Slopwatch: LinuxTechLab, linuxsecurity.com, LinuxIac, and More
Also: The Register's Microsoft agenda (new editor)
Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Gemtext Aware Titan Editor and Gemini Protocol Comeback
Links for the day