Bonum Certa Men Certa

Serco's Censorship of Media or EPO's Censorship of Media? Either Way, There's a Profound Media Crisis in Europe.

All the articles below have been removed except Techrights'

Serco EPO deal censored



Summary: Team UPC and other patent maximalists are in control of most coverage in the domain of patents; but they go even further than that and it extends to actual censorship of already-published articles

THE WRITINGS we have about the European Patent Office (EPO) are astounding in the sense that they've helped expose various levels of cover-up. EPO abuses aren't covered by the media (there are now stronger and more effective suppressions of such coverage), coverage of the EPO's suppression of the media is also suppressed, and announcements about deals of António Campinos are being deleted from the Web. Moreover, comments about Battistelli's abuses are being deleted. There's an orchestrated media campaign to make the EPO look good, possibly because of the UPC lobby or patent maximalists' interests, e.g. those who promote software patents in Europe.



The U.S. has the First Amendment the press there is generally exercising more freedom than in Europe, so American media does occasionally cover issues with the USPTO. Europe? Not as much... the Internet censorship agenda is still very strong (notoriously so) in Europe, including in the EU.

"There's an orchestrated media campaign to make the EPO look good..."The greater the suppression of facts, the more attracted we become to these issues. If Europe does not have independent media, or if European media is easy to bribe, how are we expected to guard democracy? Or to ensure laws are being followed? There's this implicit consent among some publishers that exposing abuses is bad for Europe's image and is thus better avoided. It's like brushing issues under a rug/carpet.

Serco seems to be deleting references (except Techrights, which cannot be censored) to its deal with the EPO -- a subject we covered/recovered here the other day. We actually saw 5 'news' articles about it in search results; but when you click? Empty pages or 404 errors, i.e. articles removed. What's going on?! It is worth remembering that when corrupt EPO management sent law firms to censor me (after exposing their corruption) they chose censorship by intimidation -- demanding takedowns of articles; later they managed to censor also reports about their acts of legal aggression -- attempts to silence me. Sometimes proactively (spiked articles). Censorship of the censorship. Criminals tend to do such things aplenty. There's a lot of money at stake and powerful interest groups are eager to do anything they can -- even silence the media if necessary.

"They recently admitted to the media (FT) that they merely try to maintain the fiction of "progress". They've been doing that for many years."UPC interests are a good example of it because media is being paid to lie about it, quoting the likes of Bristows. And speaking of Bristows, only hours ago we saw so-called "Kluwer Patent blogger" (probably Bristows) publishing this piece entitled "Great uncertainty but preparations for Unitary Patent system continue". Is this the latest propaganda piece from Bristows? They're absolutely desperate! They recently admitted to the media (FT) that they merely try to maintain the fiction of "progress". They've been doing that for many years. Here's what EU News wrote 7 years: “What is the ‘unitary patent package’?”

And 7 years later it’s dead. This whole thing was a coup and it failed badly. Meanwhile, by their own admission, Bristows et al delete 'dissenting' comments about the UPC, both in IP Kat and in Kluwer Patent Blog. They have done this for years (we wrote about it and gave examples).

As per this post from Friday, the 'Kat' is now run by -- and promotes interests of -- Big Pharma monopolists (Rose Hughes and her employer). This blog is sick. It's not what it used to be. Watch comments like this one: "We can't allow liberalisation of the regime until all the full risks have been assessed properly, and the fact that CRISPR modifications are normally less than classic GMO ones is not a good enough reason to assume that CRISPR modified plants won't cause the same problems as GMO ones. Your article has not mentioned these problems which are huge in the eyes of many (see for example https://www.earth.com/news/gmo-crops-real-problem/). At a time when destruction of the environment has been declared an 'emergency' in the UK I would suggest caution is the best approach..."

Comments in IP Kat are still miles better than the posts because the posts are mostly lobbying and marketing of litigation firms and monopolies. No wonder coverage of EPO scandals is now suppressed. The blog is compromised (sometimes authored by Team UPC). Hello Bristows!

Bristows EPO



"They call themselves lawyers and attorneys, but they're clearly a major affront to the Rule of Law."If we cannot have free press in Europe, we won't have justice either. We hope that readers recognise the threat Team UPC poses not only to the press but also -- by inference -- to justice. They call themselves lawyers and attorneys, but they're clearly a major affront to the Rule of Law.

On Friday the EPO once again tweeted promotion of its cooperation and event with a patent trolls' front group. We know whose side EPO management is on.

As an aside, a month later the Web site epostaff4rights is still offline. Our attempts to find out why have not been successful. So many publications about EPO abuses have already vanished.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft's Windows is a Niche Operating System in Africa
African nations aren't a large contributor to Microsoft's income, but if many African nations move away from Windows, then the monopoly is at risk
Gemini Links 19/06/2025: Unix Primitivism, Zine Club, and Gemini Protocol Turns 6 at Midnight
Links for the day
 
Links 19/06/2025: Ghostwriting Scam and Fentanylware (TikTok) Buying Time
Links for the day
Links 19/06/2025: WhatsApp Identified as Assassination 'Crosshairs', Patreon Now Rips Off People Even More
Links for the day
"Told You So": Another Very Large Wave of Microsoft Layoffs Now Confirmed in Mainstream Media
So we were right to believe the rumours, based on the credibility of prior such rumours
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 18, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Gemini Links 18/06/2025: Magit and Farming
Links for the day
Slopwatch: BetaNews is Now a Slopfarm (Like Linuxsecurity) and Google News is Overwhelmed by Slopfarms
The Web is bad
Links 18/06/2025: SCOTUS Decision on Fentanylware (TikTok) Still Ignored, 4.5-Day Work Weeks
Links for the day
Links 17/06/2025: Windows TCO and G7 Rifts
Links for the day
The Right to Know and the Freedom to Report on Crime (at the Higher Echelons)
I'd like to do the same thing for the next 20 years
BetaNews Appears to Have Fired All Of Its Staff
Even serial sloppers
After the Web Becomes Slopped to Death
A lot of people are rightly fed up with the "modern" Web
Gemini Protocol Turns 6 on Friday
Active (online) Gemini capsules are estimated by Lupa at over 3,000
Like Most Social Control Media, Microsoft LinkedIn is Collapsing
One reason for Microsoft acquisitions is debt-loading, i.e. offloading and burying its debt
Microsoft is Losing Its Richest Clients
Unlike some very poor countries, Germany and the EU are a considerable source of income to Microsoft
Proprietary Means Not Secure
Proprietary software tends to rely on secrecy, not good design
Slop in 'AI' Clothing is a Passing Fad, We'll Get Past It (Like Blockchain Before That)
Many people cheat in exams using slop and there are professionals that try using slop as a "shortcut"
GNOME Does Not Campaign Against Microsoft, KDE Does
It's good to see that KDE is still active in promotion of Free software - a term that it uses
Slopwatch: BetaNews, Linuxsecurity, and Other Prolific Slopfarms
name and shame the sites that establish such proliferation of slop
Gemini Links 18/06/2025: Birch Lake and Loon Pond
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 17, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Links 17/06/2025: "The Grift Economy" and Kubernetes Does Proprietary
Links for the day
Microsoft's "FUD-as-a-Service" (Against Linux) Not Functioning Well
This is the kind of contribution companies like Microsoft and Google have to offer to society
Betanews Becoming a Slopfarm is "Betanews Growing Alongside You", According to Betanews
Their first 'article' in over two weeks is 52% "AI-generated" (slop), 33% mixed (edited slop), 18% human-written, says an advanced scanner.
Coffee Day and LLM Sloppers
The LLM slop "bros" are a lot like fake-money bros; they lie to people, they boast that they lie to people, and they're generally bad people, BS artists in colloquial terms
Double-Dipping the Docket for Microsoft Glory and Censorship of Microsoft Critics
same lawyer, same barrister, all US, all Microsoft
TheLayoff Censorship of IBM Threads Has Gone Truly Ludicrous
we do not argue that TheLayoff should not cull LLM slop
More Stallmanites Added to FSF Board and Summer Fundraiser Commences
There's some good news from the FSF
Gemini Links 17/06/2025: Consistency and Notes About NixOS
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 16, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 16, 2025