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Quality worries: Strikes at European Patent Office

gerloff

25. octubre 2006

heise.de (in German) reports that patent examiners at the European Patent Office (EPO) are protesting changes to the patent assessment process. The protests, which have been going on for a while, have repeatedly culminated in strikes.

While EPO head Alain Pompidou publicly touts high quality of patents as his goal, it seems that in reality there are "efficiency" guidelines being set which emphasise quantity over quality, leaving examiners less time to look at patent applications. This results in a higher number of poor quality patents.

The EPO also continues to grant patents on software, despite such monopolies on ideas being illegal in the EU. Perhaps putting a stop of that practice would yield some capacities to raise quality in areas where patents are legal?

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obsolete

incinerator

25. octubre 2006

Imho the patent system as implemented today is obsolete and on the verge of collapse. The current implementation is not able to cope with todays complex globalised world. It has stopped fulfilling its purpose, to advance technological progress, a long time ago. Instead, it's been abused by the big corporations to squash competition from small and medium businesses.

However, this must be hard to realise for someone who works at a patent office. Image someone would tell you that the job you do is absolutely useless, and be right. Thus, people working at patent offices egange in a mass hallucination/illusion, giving themselves in to a world of the past, where patents still worked. This doesn't help society of course, on the contrary.

The current symptoms observed at the EPO, discussions and even strikes, are a sign of hope. It seems some people within the EPO are finally beginning to realise that they are fighting a lost cause and that the (patent) system needs to change radically before it can be any benefit for mankind again.

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obsolete

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