Bonum Certa Men Certa

Time for the Boards of Appeal to Host Their Own Files, Knowing That the Patent Office is Censoring Submissions From the Public

Video download link



Summary: For the appearance and practice of independence the Boards of Appeal must immediately take control of their systems as the EPO is tampering with evidence and removing (censoring) some of it to influence the outcome of the cases

THE video above was made before writing this article. It explains why we're comparing the situation at the EPO to what happened last year (and in late 2019) in Seattle. That serves as a cautionary tale.



"Just as police departments must comply with a FOIA request in the US (within reasonable limits based around sensibilities and safety), the EPO (Organisation) must inform the judges of stakeholders' input, thoughts, general information of interest, including any conflict of interest."Pardon us, dear readers, if the analogies aren't convenient, but they're worth entertaining. On the one hand we have a police department (supplying evidence to a court, where the accused decided to plead guilty); on the other hand, on the other side of the Atlantic, we have a European tribunal that's supposed to judge the largest patent office in Europe.

Just as police departments must comply with a FOIA request in the US (within reasonable limits based around sensibilities and safety), the EPO (Organisation) must inform the judges of stakeholders' input, thoughts, general information of interest, including any conflict of interest.

But now we know that the EPO has been manipulating what judges can see and what various concerned observers can view/digest.

This is appalling. This is a catastrophic disaster, albeit don't expect European media to even mention it.

"That was around 2019, well before the media caught up with things and thereafter blasted Gates (it was also in 2019 that his wife sought a divorce, largely due to her husband's connections with Epstein, whom he had repeatedly met behind her back)."To borrow the Seattle analogy, we requested police files about the arrest at Bill Gates' home -- files that were likely hosted on Microsoft servers and thus potentially subjected to tinkering, manipulation, and censorship by Microsoft (and its co-founder, Gates). The fact that it took them months just to open their own files (they tried and failed many times) does not bode well, does it? In fact, we wrote about this many times before and directly quoted the Police Department (PD) on it. In general terms, you cannot let the subject of investigation be in control of the investigative authority and its files. Think about it for a moment; why should it take several months for a PD to open its own files?

That was around 2019, well before the media caught up with things and thereafter blasted Gates (it was also in 2019 that his wife sought a divorce, largely due to her husband's connections with Epstein, whom he had repeatedly met behind her back).

As noted in the video, several readers wrote to us regarding the revelations from EPOnia. Some were outright astounded that it hadn't (yet) become a scandal.

"Do you find normal that the registry of the EBA ("the court") is hosted (and censored/filtered) by the EPO ("the administration")," one reader asked us. "A proper independent court should have its own registry of documents, notably to avoid censorship from the administration."

"It's not a solved issue and merely the edge of a massive iceberg that's the loss of judges' autonomy (lots and lots of patent judges)."Indeed, it's a very severe abuse of power and yet more evidence of the lack of independence.

The reader continued: "Do you have any proof that the submission has been censored?"

We have it now. "I am thinking about writing a submission," the reader added, but then asked, "is the period to submit comments still open?"

Expect more to come about this. It's not a solved issue and merely the edge of a massive iceberg that's the loss of judges' autonomy (lots and lots of patent judges). Yesterday, "Congressional Committee Calls On GAO To Investigate Whether Patent Office Director Is Putting Thumb On The Scale Of Patent Reviews" was published by TechDirt. Remember what Andrei Iancu did to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in sight of inter partes reviews (IPRs) thwarting lots of patents that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) should never have granted in the first place. Many were software patents, invalid under Alice/35 U.S.C. ۤ 101.

In any event, we now have hard evidence of the censorship, which is a form of tampering. "Censorship of third party observations by EPO confirmed," one source told us, sharing this new pair of pages [PDF]. Here they are as a GIF:

G1-21 - TPO - 4 June 2021
G 1/21 - TPO - 4 June 2021



Notice the date.

"A new third party observation which was submitted on 4 June has appeared [PDF] in the public register for case no. G 1/21," the source told explained. "This new submission of 4 June draws the attention of the Enlarged Board to a recent judgment of the French Supreme Court. According to the person who made the submission, the French Supreme Court has ruled that hearings held by ViCo without the consent of a party are not compatible with the rights of citizens as guaranteed by the French Constitution."

It's also not compatible with a lot of other things. Each such hearing is held in violation if not contempt of the law.

"The fact that this submission is visible in the public register whereas the earlier submission of 1 June is not visible confirms earlier suspicions that the EPO is censoring the submission of 1 June," our source noted. "The submission of 1 June raises allegations of cronyism against Campinos and casts doubts on his motives for supporting mandatory hearings by ViCo (i.e. without the consent of the parties). EPO management clearly wants to prevent these allegations from becoming public knowledge."

"If the media doesn't cover this scandal, maybe that says a lot about the media, not about the severity of the scandal itself."Some EPO insiders wrote to us expressing complete agreement with the observation made therein. Campinos must be shivering in his boots sneakers. What if the whole subversion of justice was designed out of personal interest? Or convenience (for himself and his cronies)?

"Art10 of the RoP of the EBOA is a joke," one reader told us this morning, as "they can do whatever they want with the 3rd party submissions, including throwing them in the bin (not publishing them), like they probably did here."

Our reader then noted: "I would not be surprised if those rules are written by the EBOA itself, we have the same problem with the UPC where the ROP are made by this ad hoc committee they created in the treaty to make those 130 pages without any parliamentary involvement."

If the media doesn't cover this scandal, maybe that says a lot about the media, not about the severity of the scandal itself.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft-Connected Sites Trying to Shift Attention Away From Microsoft's Megabreach Only Days Before Important If Not Unprecedented Grilling by the US Government?
Why does the mainstream media not entertain the possibility a lot of these talking points are directed out of Redmond?
Firefox Has Fallen to 2% in New Zealand
At around 2%, at least in the US (2% or below this threshold), there's no longer an obligation to test sites for any Gecko-based browser
 
GNU/Linux in Georgia: Looking Good
Windows down from 99% to less than 33%
Tomorrow is a Historic Day for Press Freedom in the UK
Take note of the Julian Assange case
Hiding in a Forest Without a Phone and Hiding Behind the First Amendment in the United States (US)
some serial defamer is trying to invert the narrative
Links 19/05/2024: Iran's President Lost in Helicopter Crash, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange Awaits Decisions in Less Than a Day
Links for the day
Links 19/05/2024: Microsoft Investigated in Europe
Links for the day
4 Old Articles About Microsoft/IBM SystemD
old but still relevant
Winning Streak
Free software prevalence
Links 19/05/2024: Conflicts, The Press, and Spotify Lawsuit
Links for the day
GNU/Linux+ChromeOS at Over 7% in New Zealand
It's also the home of several prominent GNU/Linux advocates
libera.chat (Libera Chat) Turns 3 Today
Freenode in the meantime continues to disintegrate
[Teaser] Freenode NDA Expires in a Few Weeks (What Really Happened 3 Years Ago)
get ready
GNU/Linux is Already Mainstream, But Microsoft is Still Trying to Sabotage That With Illegal Activities and Malicious Campaigns of Lies
To help GNU/Linux grow we'll need to tackle tough issues and recognise Microsoft is a vicious obstacle
Slovenia's Adoption of GNU/Linux in 2024
Whatever the factor/s may be, if these figures are true, then it's something to keep an eye on in the future
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 18, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, May 18, 2024
Links 19/05/2024: Profectus Beta 1.2
Links for the day
Site Archives (Not WordPress)
We've finally finished the work
[Meme] The EPO Delusion
on New Ways of Working
EPO Representatives Outline Latest Attacks on Staff
Not much has happened recently in terms of industrial action
Links 18/05/2024: Revisiting the Harms of Patent Trolls, Google Tries to Bypass (or Plagiarise) Sites Under the Guise of "AI"
Links for the day
Links 18/05/2024: BASIC Story, Site Feeds, and New in Geminispace
Links for the day
GNU/Linux in Kyrgyzstan: From 0.5% to 5% in Eight Years
the country is almost the size of the UK
Justice for Victims of Online Abuse
The claims asserted or pushed forth by the harasser are categorically denied
[Meme] Senior Software Engineer for Windows
This is becoming like another Novell
Links 18/05/2024: Deterioration of the Net, North Korean IT Workers in the US
Links for the day
Windows in Lebanon: Down to 12%?
latest from statCounter
[Video] 'Late Stage Capitalism': Microsoft as an Elaborate Ponzi Scheme (Faking 'Demand' While Portraying the Fraud as an Act of Generosity and Demanding Bailouts)
Being able to express or explain the facts isn't easy because of the buzzwords
Links 18/05/2024: Caledonia Emergency Powers, "UK Prosecutor's Office Went Too Far in the Assange Case"
Links for the day
Microsoft ("a Dying Megacorporation that Does Not Create") and IBM: An Era of Dying Giants With Leadership Deficits and Corporate Bailouts (Subsidies From Taxpayers)
Microsoft seems to be resorting to lots of bribes and chasing of bailouts (i.e. money from taxpayers worldwide)
US Patent and Trademark Office Sends Out a Warning to People Who Do Not Use Microsoft's Proprietary Formats
They're punishing people who wish to use open formats
Links 18/05/2024: Fury in Microsoft Over Studio Shutdowns, More Gaming Layoffs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 17, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, May 17, 2024
Links 18/05/2024: KOReader, Benben v0.5.0 Progress Update, and More
Links for the day
[Meme] UEFI 'Secure' Boot Boiling Frog
UEFI 'Secure' Boot: You can just ignore it. You can just turn it off. You can hack on it as a workaround. Just use Windows dammit!
The Market Wants to Delete Windows and Install GNU/Linux, UEFI 'Secure' Boot Must Go!
To be very clear, this has nothing to do with security and those who insist that it is have absolutely no credentials
In the United States Of America the Estimated Share of Google Search Grew After Microsoft's Chatbot Hype (Which Coincided With Mass Layoffs at Bing)
Microsoft's chatbot hype started in late 2022
Techrights Will Categorically Object to Any Attempts to Deny Its Right to Publish Informative, Factual Material
we'll continue to publish about 20 pages per day while challenging censorship attempts
Links 17/05/2024: Microsoft Masks Layoffs With Return-to-office (RTO) Mandates, More YouTube Censorship
Links for the day
YouTube Progresses to the Next Level
YouTube is a ticking time bomb
Journalists and Human Rights Groups Back Julian Assange Ahead of Monday's Likely Very Final Decision
From the past 24 hours...
[Meme] George Washington and the Bill of Rights
Centuries have passed since the days of George Washington, but the principles are still the same
Daniel Pocock: "I've Gone to Some Lengths to Demonstrate How Corporate Bad Actors Have Used Amateur-hour Codes of Conduct to Push Volunteers Into Modern Slavery"
"As David explains, the Codes of Conduct should work the other way around to regulate the poor behavior of corporations who have been far too close to the Debian Suicide Cluster."
Video of Richard Stallman's Talk From Four Weeks Ago
2-hour video of Richard Stallman speaking less than a month ago
statCounter Says Twitter/X Share in Russia Fell From 23% to 2.3% in 3 Years
it seems like YouTube gained a lot
Journalist Who Won Awards for His Coverage of the Julian Assange Ordeals Excluded and Denied Access to Final Hearing
One can speculate about the true reason/s
Richard Stallman's Talk, Scheduled for Two Days Ago, Was Not Canceled But Really Delayed
American in Paris
3 More Weeks for Daniel Pocock's Campaign to Win a Seat in European Parliament Elections
Friday 3 weeks from now is polling day
Microsoft Should Have Been Fined and Sanctioned Over UEFI 'Lockout' (Locking GNU/Linux Out of New PCs)
Why did that not happen?
Gemini Links 16/05/2024: Microsoft Masks Layoffs With Return-to-office (RTO) Mandates, Cash Issues
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 16, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, May 16, 2024
Ex-Red Hat CEO Paul Cormier Did Not Retire, He Just Left IBM/Red Hat a Month Ago (Ahead of Layoff Speculations)
Rather than retire he took a similar position at another company
Linux.com Made Its First 'Article' in Over and Month, It Was 10 Words in Total, and It's Not About Linux
play some 'webapp' and maybe get some digital 'certificate' for a meme like 'clown computing'