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. ⬆