Bonum Certa Men Certa

Anything to Distract From the EPO's Plunging Patent Quality

A subject that mainstream media (large publishers) in Europe would dare not touch even though it alarms examiners

EPO delivery



Summary: Slowly but surely we're moving to the realm of patents being presumed invalid (not complying with the law), but somehow the European media doesn't consider it worth reporting on

THE media silence regarding EPO scandals is oftentimes depressing, but if the media refuses to participate in actual journalism, then it's leaving a vacuum others will gleefully fill. Take note of yesterday's EPO "news" -- a truly ridiculous puff piece (warning: epo.org link) with an António Campinos photo op. It's content-free nonsense. "Located opposite each other on the banks of the Isar river in Munich," it says, "the Deutsches Museum and European Patent Office (EPO) have strengthened their partnership by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This step enhances relations between the two technology organisations, and is also an invitation to other local institutions as well as Bavarian stakeholders to engage in an inspiring exchange on innovation."

"Under Battistelli the EPO followed the Chinese model of just granting as many patents (monopolies) as possible."It's like their artsy puff pieces from several months ago. Does Deutsches Museum not know that associating with the EPO is going to cost it dearly? Many people's reputation was harmed by association with Battistelli. The EPO added another photo op in Twitter (Campinos photo ops aplenty) and said: "The EPO and its technological neighbour the Deutsches Museum have strengthened their partnership to raise awareness of innovation and IP..."

It's typically liars and lawyers who say "innovation and IP," intentionally conflating patents with "property" (the EPO did this again yesterday) and patents with "innovation". Since technical people aren't running the Office, this is rather typical. It's troubling, too. It wasn't always this bad.

Golden Casino News has meanwhile pushed this spammy (promotional/marketing) piece stating that "Insplorion’s battery sensor patent “Battery with sensor” has today been granted by the European Patent Office, EPO. The patent will also be granted in China upon payment of the registration fees."

"At what stage can most patents be simple presumed invalid?"When will it be fair to say that because of corruption and violations of the law patent quality in Europe is as low as China's? Pilots suggest that the EPO hardly wants to do examination anymore. All those software patents in Europe (probably hundreds of thousands of them by now) are not valid, but few of these will be challenged in a court outside the EPO. We've sadly come to a point where injustice at the EPO is defended by further injustice. All that seems to matter is the number of patents, never their quality. Watchtroll, in yesterday's pieces, mocked challenges to validity (Daniel Hanson's "Don’t Let Experts Testify as to Obviousness") and Rob Sterne wrote about "How China Will Fundamentally Change the Global IP System," taking note of the "massive volume of filings at the Chinese Patent Office (CNIPA)..."

Under Battistelli the EPO followed the Chinese model of just granting as many patents (monopolies) as possible. This reduces the perceived value of each pertinent patent and discredits the patent system as a whole.

In our next daily links we'll included news about patents in the US. It certainly looks like reduced legal certainty associated with US patents has become an alarming issue. At what stage can most patents be simple presumed invalid? Each such patent is an act of injustice.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 03/10/2024: "Hey Hi" Scandals and Copyright/Trademark Disputes
Links for the day
Invidious Seems to be Nearing 'End of Life' After Repeated Crackdowns by Google/Alphabet/YouTube
To Free software users, YouTube ought to become a "no-no"
Links 03/10/2024: Climate Issues and Tensions in East Asia
Links for the day
Like a Marketing Department of Microsoft, Canonical Sells Back Doors and Surveillance as "Confidential" and "Hey Hi" (AI)
Notice how Canonical has made no statement critical of Microsoft for years
Gemini Links 03/10/2024: Frozen Tofu and SGI O2
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 02, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 02, 2024
Links 02/10/2024: Microsoft Spying on Windows Users Grows, Microsoft's Surveillance Arm LinkedIn Used to Highlight Employment Crisis
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2024: Students Who Can’t Read Books and Dead Butt Syndrome
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/10/2024: GNU/Linux Distros, Flat-File Databases, and How the Web ate Gopher
Links for the day
Technology: rights or responsibilities? - Part II
By Dr. Andy Farnell
A Cost-Free Bribe From Microsoft
Daniel Stenberg is not dumb, but he seems rather gullible or unprincipled
Plans for the Site's 19th Year
Like TechDirt, we expect to devote more efforts/time to covering free speech online
Network Getting Faster
Loading up the site in 0.077 seconds
The Manchester Experience
Yesterday Tux Machines served 436,897 Web hits
If Red Hat Has Mass Layoffs This Year, Nobody Will Tell You About It
We seem to have entered a strange quasi-cosmic era wherein layoffs aren't disclosed anymore and news sites don't bother to report them, either
IBM, Kyndryl, Subsidiaries (Like Red Hat) and Silent Layoffs
Kyndryl follows in IBM's footsteps with rolling layoffs likely affecting thousands
Anniversaries and New Beginnings
The world needs more transparency and far less secrecy
Links 02/10/2024: Microsoft Kills Off HoloLens, Media Discusses Assange Speech
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/10/2024: New Car, Broadband, and Gemtexter 3.0.0
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 01, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 01, 2024
[Meme] October 1st: The Day Julian Assange 'Officially Came Back'
Assange: See you in Strasbourg in 5 years
Full Transcript of Julian Assange's Speech in Strasbourg
the full thing
The Full Talk by Julian Assange Including Questions and Answers Discussed Further (October 1st 2024, Council of Europe Committee Legal Affairs)
Wikileaks covered this talk in "tweets"
Julian Assange's First Publicly Delivered Talk Since 2019
Julian Assange's talk in France
Links 01/10/2024: Another Escalation in the Middle East, Software Patents Being Squashed
Links for the day
Microsoft's Collapse is Continuing
Microsoft is discontinuing its HoloLens headsets
Links 01/10/2024: Gavin Newsom's Tech Safety Legislation, YouTube Sued for Health Harms
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/10/2024: ROOPHLOCH and Photos
Links for the day
Julian Assange Talk: Watch Live
2 hours from now
"IBM executives did not decide to buy Red Hat on their own, nor will they decide to sell Red Hat on their own should that time ever arise"
Since IBM bought Red Hat it merely made its products more proprietary
GNU/Linux and Android Rose to New Highs in September
StatCounter isn't the ground truth, but there's not much else in the public domain.
Links 01/10/2024: Climate Stories, Climate Change, and War in Lebanon
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/10/2024: Separation, Validation, and Flatfile Databases
Links for the day
Blind Worship of Technology is a Misguided Fool's Errand
Andy Farnell of the Cybershow used the metaphor of "golden calf" last week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 30, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, September 30, 2024