TEN years ago the European Patent Office (EPO) crowned Benoît Battistelli in spite of warnings that the man was dangerous and incompetent. He lasted 8 years before leaving the job, due to growing pressure, putting his position at the hands of another crony of his, so the EPO never recovered and may never recover. As SUEPO noted earlier this summer, António Campinos has lower approval rates (among EPO staff) than Battistelli when one compares analogous points in time. There's no recovery foreseen, only layoffs. And judging things from here, the collapse of the UPC harms not only software patents granted by the EPO; it lessens the chance of any European Patent being successfully enforced in a court of law. Earlier this morning IP Kat wrote about "EP (UK) patent (EP2657585) related to a collapsible garden hose," noting that the English/British "Court of Appeal considered Emson's appeal from a High Court decision finding the Xhose patent obvious in view of a prior art patent document, McDonald (US 2003/0000530)." It further stated: "All of the judges commented that, to a casual observer, the Xhose would seem obviously inventive or expressed sympathy for the sole inventor when finding his "simple and brilliant invention" obvious in view of a niche patent document of which the inventor had not been aware (see Arnold LJ at para. 76)."
"There's no separation of powers."At the moment the EPO's 'Haar division' (BoA in exile) is still managed by another Battistelli appointee, so justice seems like a distant dream. As we noted several times earlier this month, Campinos and the Office still openly meddle in the affairs of these judges. So what sort of oversight is this? There's no separation of powers. Maybe Carl can kiss and make up after one of his judges/colleagues was attacked for writing about a corrupt 'bulldog' of Battistelli, whom he owes his job to?
