European Patent Office Threatens Blogger With Defamation Lawsuit For Criticism

from the thin-skin dept

Wed, Nov 25th 2015 10:39am — Mike Masnick

World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR) is reporting that the European Patent Office, EPO, has threatened Roy Schestowitz with a defamation lawsuit over a blog post he did. Schestowitz writes the Techrights blog, which I personally think can go overboard with some of its stories at times. However, to argue that his stories are defamation, especially by a government agency, is crazy. Back in October, Schetowitz had a story claiming that the EPO was prioritizing patent applications from large companies like Microsoft to "foster a better esprit de service." I actually don't think the program described by the EPO actually sounds that crazy, and the EPO's response isn't that crazy either -- it's just about more efficiently handling certain patent applications to keep the office from getting swamped. Indeed, it does seem like Schestowitz may have overreacted with his interpretation of the memo. But, misinterpreting something is hardly defamation.

In fact, to argue that Schestowitz's post is defamatory is crazy. Threatening Schestowitz with a defamation claim is much crazier and dangerous than even Schestowitz's own interpretation of the EPO's memo. If you're working for a government agency, such as the EPO, you have to be willing to accept some amount of criticism, even if you disagree with it. To claim it's defamation and to threaten a lawsuit is really, really screwed up. Frankly, this calls into question what the EPO is focused on much more than any claims of favoring large companies. Also bizarre is the fact that WIPR edited its own story to remove any mention of what Schestowitz's original blog posts were about in the first place. They had originally included a sentence briefly describing the original Techrights blog post that got the EPO upset, but then deleted that part.

The EPO has been coming under a fair bit of criticism lately, and the entire organization appears to be astoundingly thin-skinned. A few months ago, the office apparently blocked access to Techrights altogether from within its network. That seems like a pretty strange move in the first place. Florian Mueller (and, yes, I know that many people here don't trust Mueller, but...) has pointed out how absolutely ridiculous the EPO can be about just about anything related to how it works:

The European Patent Office is the last dictatorship on Central European soil. Local police cannot allowed to enter the EPO's facilities without an invitation from the president. National court rulings cannot be enforced; compliance is voluntary. Employees and visitors are subjected to covert surveillance. And if employees are fired (or "suspended"), which just happened to several staff representative, they won't get their day in court for about ten years.

The EPO's leaders have a rather selective attitude toward the law. When it's about their wrongdoings, they want their organization to be a lawless, autocratic island that disrespects human rights. But when the rules of the world around the EPO come in handy, the leadership of the EPO tries to leverage them against those who dare to criticize it.

I'm having trouble thinking of any other governmental agency that has ever threatened a public critic with defamation. Basic concepts around free speech suggest that the EPO should suck it up. If it disagrees with Schestowitz's interpretation of what it's doing, then it can come out and explain its side of the story. Threatening him with defamation actually only makes me think that perhaps his interpretation hits closer to home than I originally believed.

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Filed Under: criticism, defamation, epo, european patent office, roy schestowitz, thin skin
Companies: epo

15 Comments

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Shill, 25 Nov 2015 @ 10:56am

Criticizing the patent system for bad patents may result in fewer approved patents which will result in fewer inventions and less innovation because everyone knows that the number of approved patents is a good metric for measuring how inventive and innovative we are.
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- Shill, 25 Nov 2015 @ 10:58am
  
  Re:
  and if you disagree with the metric mentioned above then how else are we supposed to measure innovation and inventiveness and progress? The number of patents approved provides us with an objective quantitative metric that can be counted.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 25 Nov 2015 @ 11:43am
    
    Re: Re:
    so does tarring and feathering... how about we start playing some tit for tat? Maybe they will figure it all out then?
    
    Naw who am I trying to kid here... government fucks think only in terms of authority and peasantry. We just need to do as told.
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    - Shill, 25 Nov 2015 @ 2:43pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Isn't science all about quantifiability? Number of patents granted is a quantifiable number. It's science.
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Ehud Gavron (profile), 25 Nov 2015 @ 11:03am

Florian Mueller
It's not that "...many people here distrust Florian Mueller".

To distrust is to suppose that there exists something that some would claim is worthy of trust. Mr. Mueller is not that thing.

2011: https://therealmadhatter.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/the-provenance-of-florian-muller/

2012: http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20120419070127103

2013: http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/03/google-about-to-lose-patent-spat-with.html

2014: http://fortune.com/2014/04/03/whats-eating-florian-mueller/

He's a worm hoping that the body he infests will rise to the top. Thus far he's bet wrong. In the process he's misled the press, the courts, and public opinion.

There's nothing there to distruct because there's nothing there to trust. Florian is a gambler and he's playing on his own table with his own dice and his own rules.

E
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Nov 2015 @ 12:42pm

makes me think that perhaps his interpretation hits closer to home than I originally believed

ding-dong goes the bell here.
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- crade (profile), 25 Nov 2015 @ 4:30pm
  
  Re:
  There are not a lot of reasons to want to prevent someone from voicing an argument you know to be false. If censoring it were somehow easier than just explaining how you know it's false, and you are lazy, maybe but I'm pretty sure that's never been the case in any lawsuit.
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Roger Strong (profile), 25 Nov 2015 @ 1:07pm

> In fact, to argue that Schestowitz's post is defamatory is crazy.

Indeed. Given their police and court immunity, covert surveillance and other powers, it's not so much defamation as blasphemy.
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EPONIA, 26 Nov 2015 @ 2:45am

Game of Thrones
the bastard Frankenstein of the Eurocrats

EPOnia is not a "government agency", it is legally a Kingdom above the EU countries, it is a tyranny with ZERO accountability...
legal- wise

here in Germany they fuck their employees in so many ways... and it is all legal;
German employer rules or any other EU country do not apply inside EPOnia
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140731/04000928065/welcome-to-eponia-europes-new-rogue-state.sht ml
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- Anonymous Coward, 26 Nov 2015 @ 3:02am
  
  Re: Game of Thrones
  for a very unionized country like Germany,
  this is a HUGE mindfuck
  
  if you work for the EPO you are officially a minion,
  the EPONIA King has EU immunity (and international too?!?)
  and you signed your EU rights away in the contract
  http://ipkitten.blogspot.co.il/2014/07/eponia-state-of-mind.html
  
  http://www.epo.org/about-us/ jobs/why/salary-benefits.html
  
  they even have their own school inside GERMANY, outside the German brainwash schooling system
  http://esmunich.de/en/home.html
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Nov 2015 @ 5:44am

http://www.fosspatents.com/2015/11/epo-labor-dispute-getting-completely.html
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Nov 2015 @ 5:50am

and let's not forget the suicides...
http://techrights.org/2015/08/27/epo-suicides-endemic/
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AC, 29 Nov 2015 @ 11:12am

Sounds familiar . . .
Who else punished people for criticising the glorious government?
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2015 @ 10:47am

They are financed by the arms industry. Sue me !
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