Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Advertises Questel and Rather Extremist Views on Patents

After the sign



Summary: Europe's second-largest institution is in the pockets of private companies associated with grift and predation, not science and technology

European Patent Office (EPO) scandals have not ended. What has ended is media coverage of these. Frenchmen António Campinos and Battistelli totally break the law, yet the media in Europe and elsewhere does not seem to mind.



"European Patent Office (EPO) scandals have not ended."Many people may not realise it, due (in part) to our limited reach, but Techrights has exclusively uncovered hundreds of scandals over the years. Including those not covered exclusively that's even more than hundreds and they're searchable. Sometimes our coverage is appreciated years later. Here's one example.

Hours ago the EPO wrote: "If you're unable to join us in Bucharest, stay tuned as we'll be live-tweeting from #EPOPIC 2019!"

"Sometimes our coverage is appreciated years later.""If you are interested in patent information," they said separately, "this is the hashtag to follow for the next three days as we’ll be live-tweeting from #EPOPIC!"

There will be lots of nonsense and lies soon (in "tweet" form), but here's the interesting thing. Questel was retweeted by the EPO on Sunday when they're supposed to have a day off. The Questel scandal was covered here before [1, 2]. "Excited to represent Questel at EPOPIC 2019," this person wrote, soon to be rewteeted by the EPO (on a Sunday). This isn't the first time the EPO does promotion/advertising for Questel and remember that the EPO-Questel scandal is also connected to Europatis, as we covered in:

  1. Jacques Michel (Former EPO VP1), Benoît Battistelli's EPO, and the Leak of Internal Staff Data to Michel's Private Venture
  2. Europatis: “Turnover of €211,800 and Zero Employees”
  3. Loose Data 'Protection' and Likely Privacy Infringements at the EPO: Here's Who Gets Employees' Internal Data
  4. Summary of the EPO-Europatis Series


two years ago we mentioned how the EPO had promoted this firm. On the 7th of November two years ago this same person wrote: "Delighted to represent @questel_ipbi at the EPO conference!"

He has kept posting Questel stuff like this: "Is your #patent cited by an examiner to reject an application based on novelty? If so, you might have a potential infringement or a #licensing opportunity! Spotting key blocking patents cited by USPTO Examiners..."

"This isn't the first time the EPO does promotion/advertising for Questel and remember that the EPO-Questel scandal is also connected to Europatis..."That's the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), where patent quality hasn't been spectacular to say the least.

Then, retweeted by EPO on Monday was more promotion of private firms. "Meet us at #EPOPIC starting today in Bucharest. At booth number 15 or Wednesday morning’s session you’ll learn a thing or two about how #graphAI helps to significantly improve patent searches," it said. Also retweeted by EPO on Monday was this ridiculous tweet (linking to WIPO): "3.3 MILLION patents 💡 were filed globally last year 🌍 That's an increase for the 9th successive year 😲 Find out which countries in particular are putting innovation on the map"

"These people are creating an unprecedented patent mess and then celebrate this mess."China games the system by passing into it lots of 'garbage' (or cruft) and the EPO is ever so proud of this massive collapse in patent quality as if it's the same as innovation. Look no further than EPO policies!

As Stephanie Nebehay (writer for Reuters) has just explained, "China accounts for nearly half global patent filings" and if one single nation does this, then you know something is wrong. China has basically gamed the world's patent system by throwing lots of junk at it. WIPO does not seem to mind. From Nebehay's article:

China accounted for nearly half of global patent filings last year, with a record 1.54 million applications, led by telecoms and computer technology, the U.N.’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said on Wednesday.

China’s share, up 11.6 percent from 2017, included requests received by China’s intellectual property office from foreign innovators and companies seeking patent protection there, representing one in 10 filings, it said.


These people are creating an unprecedented patent mess and then celebrate this mess. They profit from it. Yesterday the EPO wrote that "[b]usinesses that make intensive use of intellectual property rights pay higher wages," citing this disgraced paid-for 'study'. Yes, businesses that have more monopolies pay more money. Let's have lots more monopolies then? There's obviously a limit to how many business monopolies can exist, so the number of well-paid workers is severely limited. All the money goes into fewer hands. Good luck explaining that to the patent 'industry' -- a so-called 'business' which profits from nothing but patenting and lawsuits.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft Lunduke Belongs in 4Chan
Assuming Microsoft Lunduke is aware of the full context, he is now trolling not one but two decent organisations
 
The GNU Manifesto Turns 40 Next Month
The guardian of Free software (definition, licences, philosophy, hosting and so on) has managed to endure and persevere for 40 years. Very few others can say the same.
In Europe and in India Richard Stallman Need Not Duck Anymore, People Trying to Cancel His Talk Have No Sway
the last time a talk by Dr. Stallman got canceled was about a year ago
Back From a Short Break
We can now resume and try to stick to the usual pace
Links 17/02/2025: LLMs Failing and Patreon Support Becoming a Burden to Bloggers
Links for the day
Links 17/02/2025: Blogroll Conundrum; Research, Scientists Under Siege
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 16, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, February 16, 2025
Links 16/02/2025: Nostalgia for Physical Media and the US Government Actively Promotes Pro-Kremlin Politicians in the EU
Links for the day
Gemini Links 16/02/2025:Life, Cynicism, and languages
Links for the day
Links 16/02/2025: Oligarchs "Collect Your Data and Control Your World", Global Temperatures Shoot Up
Links for the day
Promoting Microsoft Windows With LLM Slop
What is the policy at BetaNews regarding LLM slop?
Alex Oliva, the Potential 'Successor' of RMS, Has a New Web Site
More freedom for Alex Oliva
Links 16/02/2025: "Microsoft Is Laying Off Employees" and Internal Dissent Brewing at Facebook Over Regime Complicity
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 15, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, February 15, 2025
Links 15/02/2025: Harms to Health, Public Domain, and More
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/02/2025: On Autistic People, AuraGem Over HTTPS
Links for the day
The Cyber Show (C|S) Speaks of the "Rise of the Nerd Reich."
This 'Valentine Episode' is quite good
Azure is Turning 17 This Year, Still Losing Money and Staff
Hallmark of pyramid schemes, deriving "value" out of things that do not really exist?
Strong Momentum for the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as Winter Approaches Its End in Boston or in the Northern Hemisphere
FSF's founder, Richard Stallman, gives another talk in Italy in 9 days from now
The 'Drunken Plagiarists' Are Harming Journalism About GNU/Linux
They lessen the incentive to do real journalism abut GNU/Linux
Female Nazis and racist Swiss women
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Richard Stallman on RISC-V and Free Hardware
Invidious is under attack by Google
Links 15/02/2025: Erasing of American Science and Tesla SLAPPing Critics
Links for the day
IDG 'Reviews' of GNU/Linux Now Contain LLM Slop
It's typically ads or commercials... or sometimes spin disguised as news
Gemini Links 15/02/2025: Spectacles and "Before Sunset", Moving Domains Out of the US
Links for the day
Microsoft Has Only $17,482 Million Left, "Cash on Hand" Sank 40 Billion Dollars in 2 Years
Microsoft runs low on money in the bank
YouTube Layoffs Mean That YouTube is Still Losing a Lot of Money (Net Income or Profit Almost Definitely Negative)
In more recent years Google defunded many vloggers
In Gopher and Gemini Protocol People Abandon Services Based in the United States
There's no resistance whatsoever
Python and Microsoft: Pandas Should Have Known OpenDocument Format (ODF) and Microsoft Excel Are Different and Competing Things
now we're meant to think that in order to open ODF files we need some functions with "Excel" in their name
Not Only Windows, Surface, and "Hey Hi" PCs; Microsoft's Hardware Ventures Are a Dumpster Fire; HoloLens Mixed Reality Hardware Now Axed Altogether and Staff is Miserable
Microsoft is in a terrible state
Certificate Authority (CA) Let's Encrypt Now Down to TEN (0.3% of the Whole) in Geminispace
The number of capsules that use Let's Encrypt is, according to Lupa, about to fall to single-digit figures
Links 15/02/2025: University Price Hikes and Copyright Action Against Slop Companies
Links for the day
Slopwatch: All Those New 'Articles' Are Fake and Crafted by Chatbots (LLM Slop)
Google News is promoting these as "Linux" news; they're not even made by humans
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 14, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, February 14, 2025