Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO 'Mafia': Break the Law and Send Mafia-Like Entities to Bully People Who Point Out the Lawbreaking

Like an authoritarian regime at best or underworld at worst

EPO and EU



Summary: The immunity of the EPO has been (mis)used to construct a Mafia-like entity with complete impunity (even the Italian Mafia doesn't enjoy such levels of impunity); nowadays the EPO not only breaks the law, robs people, drives people to suicide/chronic illness and lies to everyone as it also bullies its critics (even those who are in no way associated with the EPO!)

THE buzzwords utilised by António Campinos were mentioned last month in his first 'proper' interview with IAM, which was full of software patents advocacy. The EPO nowadays pretends that everything "digital" or anything with a "computer" or with "software" is patentable. In that regard, Campinos is even worse than his predecessor. Many people will be misled and mistaken because of "Brand Campinos", wrongly assuming that he's always somehow better in every way. Remember that two years on the job already Campinos still blocks access to Techrights. Does that sound democratic to anyone? More like China.



Campinos still exploits his dead father to pretend he's alright. But the EPC is being violated by the EPO every day. Campinos breaks the law every day. This is very much true under Campinos -- no less than it was true under Battistelli. It's just that the media hardly talks about it anymore. A few days ago the EPO tweeted (most of the official EPO communications nowadays come from Twitter and Microsoft, two American companies). "Do you regularly use our EPC and PCT-EPO Guidelines? If so, don't miss this opportunity to tell us what you think of them. There are only 6 days left to submit your feedback."

There were many tweets like that recently, including another from around the same time, which said: "Are the EPC and PCT-EPO Guidelines relevant for your work? Contribute to their revision by submitting your feedback on them here: https://bit.ly/2TBX3aI"

As one can expect, submissions will mostly come from law firms. The general public is mostly kept in the dark and discarded/demoted by the EPO (there's no option there for those who aren't applicants or law firms).

"Sometimes patent searching can become very complicated," the EPO tweeted, "while some technical fields throw up difficulties for patent searchers by their very nature. How do our examiners rise to such challenges?"

If in doubt, they grand, just like examiners of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), even post-Alice/35 U.S.C. ۤ 101. So the lower the hiring standards, the more wrongly-granted patents will be counted. The EPO is in that sense incentivised not to hire people smart enough to demonstrate ineligibility (for rejection). The staff representatives have already complained that examiners are being assigned to deal with patent applications outside their field of expertise.

So how can the EPO maintain this illusion of compliance with the EPC? Too many European Patents (EPs) are Invalid Patents (IPs) these days and it's going to become a major blunder somewhere down the line.

As we explained in the previous post, the EPO now mimics the Chinese model, which is basically a 'mad house' of patent grants. The goal is only to grant more and more patents, not to improve their quality.

A few years ago we leaked some internal communications that showed the EPO was very well aware this. Here's one example. The EPO's response to such leaks was sheer aggression, i.e. the usual. The management of the EPO sent several law firms from London to go after me and threaten me. Why? For exposing internal communications, highlighting EPO abuses and corruption.

A couple of days ago Benjamin Henrion shared a similar story when he said: "The Coronabonds closed doors meetings remembers me the software patent directive in Council: the in-video speeches were a show and staged in advance, everything was decided in a diner the sunday before. Diplomats like secrecy [...] I even had a 'fight' with the chief of the Luxemburgish patent office, who accused us of leaking the minutes of some closed Council meeting, which showed that Council wanted to rubberstamp the directive super quickly if the Parliament approved it."

I'll never forget how the EPO attempted to silence me (apparently it did similar things to IP Kat, culminating in complete ban of the whole site). That was back when media actually blasted the EPO for its abuses, about 4 years ago in 2015-2016.

Back then the media also played along with EPO lies. Some of the media still believed and relayed many of the lies. Notice Benoît Battistelli quoted this old article from Rosie Spinks at The 'Guardian'. The article contains serious lies, such as "UK will vote on its European future just as the EU finalises a new patent system..."

The UPC was already pretty much dead just months after she had published it. This is how she introduced it: "The unitary patent is set to be granted by the EPO and will be valid in 26 countries, with a centralised court of enforcement known as the Unified Patent Court (UPC). It was conceived as a way to cut down on the cost, administration and red-tape of filing and enforcing a patent across many European jurisdictions. Under the unitary system, those seeking patent protection in multiple markets can file a single application to the EPO, and if granted, see it have immediate effect across all relevant states and pay a single renewal fee."

Citing thugs from Fieldfisher -- that Mafia of the EPO (it sent its employee with the surname "Capone" to repeatedly threaten me) -- Rosie Spinks at The 'Guardian' proceeded to spread lies about what the UPC/A means to SMEs. The 'Guardian' wrote: "David Knight, a partner in law firm Fieldfisher’s intellectual property and technology team, added that if the Brexit were to occur, British SMEs who needed patent protection across Europe could still file for the unitary patent — as can any foreign company — it just wouldn’t include patent protection at home as part of the package."

This is the same firm that the EPO paid to threaten me. Rosie Spinks at The 'Guardian' was back then mentioning "SMEs" like a couple dozen times, quoting EPO and law firms but not actual SMEs. We can only guess that printing lies is business as usual for this 'news' paper...

This was only a few months after the legal threats from Fieldfisher’s Mr. Capone. Later on they'll tell us how gentle and respectful the Office is. They'll tell us they mourn dead Italians (Coronavirus victims) while sending Mafia like Capone (literally Capone!) after their critics. Some friendly patent office, eh? No better than the extortion artists known as patent trolls.

Recent Techrights' Posts

At the Root of the SLAPPs There Are Matters of GitHub Corruption and Microsoft Competition Crimes
Keep both eyes on the ball; this is about monopoly abuse and attempts to muzzle critics
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: More on the Complaint, Which Also Points the Finger at Stefano Mafulli and Deb Nicholson
Focus on what they are attempting to distract from
"Linux" Foundation, Besieged by Microsoft, Isn't About Science But Against Science and Against Facts
(and for Microsoft Dogma, Microsoft Domination, Microsoft Money)
IBM Pays IDG's IDC to Market Proprietary Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Under the Guise of "Research"
Proprietary RHEL promoted by FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt or just plain fear-mongering)
Gemini Links 10/04/2025: "Secret of Happiness" and Overthinking POSSE
Links for the day
 
Gemini Links 11/04/2025: Microcosmographia Academica and Ada Language
Links for the day
Links 11/04/2025: "Getting Screamed At" and LLM Crawlers as Vandals Online
Links for the day
Links 11/04/2025: Microsoft Mass Layoffs Again, Zelensky Doubles Down on Claim That Many Chinese Are Fighting for Russia
Links for the day
Slopwatch: A Sea of LLM Slop About SparkyLinux, Kubernetes, Ubuntu, and Linux Kernel
Welcome to the future? The future of the Web?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 10, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 10, 2025
Links 10/04/2025: NNCPNET Email Network, RSS Readers, and IRS as 'Immigration Enforcer'
Links for the day
IBM Layoffs in Markham (Canada) Apparently Still Happening
"Still going on... Got laid off today. TEL Canada, Band 9, 19 years with IBM."
Links 10/04/2025: Fentanylware (TikTok) Perils and Internet Shutdown
Links for the day
Microsoft's "Linux" Foundation Pays Writers to Publish Propaganda and Then LLM Slop Sites (Slopfarms) Repeat the Propaganda, Using Microsoft LLMs
consider the latest LLM slop
Once You Slop You Can't Stop and If You're a Serial Slopper Nobody Will Believe You Really Wrote an Article (Even If You Did)
It's a lot like, "if you're a serial liar people won't believe you even when you say some truth" (or "once a cheater, always a cheater")
Pressing Against SLAPPs (From Americans Who Strangle Women While Microsoft Pays Their Salaries) is a High Priority for Us
We also need to ensure that greedy firms/people that facilitate the SLAPPs get "disbarred" or "struck off"
Mozilla Firefox Already Down to 1% in Brazil
Don't people crave the surveillance and the slop?
Links 10/04/2025: Hardware, Politics, and Internet
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/04/2025: Creativity and Agitation, Life in the USA, CSS Naked Day 2025
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 09, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 09, 2025
Alleged Layoffs at IBM Consulting in Australia
IBM loses many government contracts these days
The Rumours Were Likely True: Sixth Wave of Microsoft Mass Layoffs in 2025 (Days After "50" Anniversary and About 5,000 Layoffs)
5 hours ago, by Ashley Stewart
Malware in Proprietary Software - Latest Additions
Original by Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Links 09/04/2025: More Trade Wars and Wars, Chinese Army Troops Found Fighting in Ukraine
Links for the day
Linux Clickbait by Slop
Give it up for Brian Fagioli, the Serial Slopper
IBM and MCC: Layoffs Coming Again to Metro Connect Company Limited (MCC) as Tariffs Bite and IBM's Shares Fall
Blacklists applicable to Chinese suppliers also mean that IBM can no longer cooperate with key partners in Asia
Microsoft's Entire Premise for Its Future Existence Goes Up in Flames
32 minutes ago
GNU/Linux on a High in Colombia
Stereotypes much?
Go Static
Please don't Go(lang) or JavaScript or PHP or...
Techrights Be Like...
K.I.S.S.
Gemini Links 09/04/2025: Autism, Cybersecurity, and LLMs Attacking Services Online
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Would be Measured at Over 5% Globally (by statCounter) Had the Data in India Not Been Changed
GNU/Linux grew a lot in many countries and has expanded since then
Keeping Track of Microsoft Layoffs in 2025
So here's a quick roundup of 2025
The Sixth Anniversary of the Lightweight Alternative to the Web (Gemini Protocol)
Now 11 short of 3,000 active capsules. 65 short of 4,500 total.
Links 09/04/2025: Quartz Fires All Writers (Shutdown, LLM Slop or Slopfarm Instead), "Bitcoin Is Crashing Hard"
Links for the day
People Are Sick of LLM Slop. Offer Them Alternatives.
We never used LLM slop for anything and we never will
Web Surveyor statCounter Sees Apple's macOS Falling From 5.6% to 3.6% in Two Months, It Might Soon be Smaller Than GNU/Linux
Apple's "value" (faked, exaggerated) is back to "pandemic times"
UK House of Lords Recognises the SLAPP Issue in the UK and EFF Pursues "Bill (That) Could Put A Stop To Censorship By Lawsuit" in the US
"A House of Lords inquiry into how the news industry can survive into the future has accused the government of “failing to prioritise” action on strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs)."
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: Seeking Class Action Against the OSI
"LETTER SEEKING CLASS ACTION REPRESENTATION"
The Value of Slop, by Alexandre Oliva
Original by Alexandre Oliva
Gemini Links 09/04/2025: Neocities, Tinylogs, and Inter-community Protocols
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 08, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 08, 2025
You Can Be an A--hole to Women (Even Strangle Women) as Long as You Work for Microsoft
Recalling the Mark Shuttleworth origin story
Canonical is a Proprietary Software Reseller With a 'Debian Base'
"Canonical Ubuntu" is just Debian with some proprietary things sold on top of it