Re: Cat's Paw / was Re: ESC Opinion and Horns Myth

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

On Sun, Nov 17, 2002 at 04:43:35PM -0500, Ronald J. Riley wrote:

> <<The fact that the EPO has been violating Art 52 EPC for years is known
> well in the law world>>
> 
> An opinion of someone with little credibility.

The statement needn't rely on my credibility.
 
> Perhaps everyone should take a look at the following link:
 
> http://www.bartleby.com/62/11/C0231175.html
 
> In this case the term would be Japanese Cat's Paw.
> 
> Mr. Horns, I assume that like me you view at least some people who dislike
> you as a badge of honor.  I is my view that one's enemies are often a better
> gage of the person's value and merit then who their friends may be.

I didn't say that I dislike Mr. Horns.
 
> A quote from a paper I wrote which was widely circulated among members of
> American Congress, and an example of another Cat's Paw with the same modus
> operating as Pilch:

It would honor me if large japanese coroparations were paying for my
campaigning, as Mr. Riley suggests, but unfortunately they are not.
We have to rely on european individuals and SMEs, quite many of them,
but probably less easy to collect money from than the patent owners
who support Mr. Riley's campaign.

Mr. Riley's statements (or insinuations) about my "modus of operating"
have no factual basis and would be calomny (punishable under penal law
in Germany: false factual assertions designed to attack people's
reputation).

Apart from calomny, other methods such as xenophobic propaganda, strongarm
tactics against patent-critics and constructions designed to inflict injury
on those who try to reverse-engineer etc, all do not particularly qualify
Mr. Riley as an opinion leader of any community.  Yet the patent community
seems to be willing to accept such leaders.

Which again could help people understand why institutions of that
community find it normal to infringe on people's existential rights
without a legal basis, or, as in the European case, against the
letter and spirit of the written law.

I quote the following story, because I find it in part informative.

> "AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THE SYSTEM IS INFLUENCED
> The shear number and ingenuity of the methods used by multinational
> corporations and foreign governments is astounding. They make some movie
> plots pale by comparison.
> 
> Harold C. Wegner, a professor at George Washington University, who would
> like to think of himself as an authority on international patent law, was
> quoted as defending patent commissioner Lehman by saying , "He got something
> for nothing. It's a brilliant trade."
> 
> Readers might be interested in my experience at a hearing held by the PTO.
> The row of chairs in front of me were full of Japanese and their hired
> American spokespersons. In fact at least a third of the people at the
> hearing were such persons.
> 
> Mr. Wegner came into the room and made a bee line to the group in front of
> me. It was a very cordial meeting. I didn't know who Mr. Wegner was and ask
> about him. I was told that he was a part time professor at George Washington
> University and that he represented many Japanese clients. I was also
> informed by another person that his position at the university was known as
> the "Japanese Chair".
> 
> I later looked up his testimony related to a number of issues and found that
> he consistently advocates changes to our patent system that will benefit the
> Japanese. His testimony is a matter of public record that anyone may review.
> This is only one example of how insidious the attempts to cripple our patent
> system are. I am working with a number of successful inventors who are
> interested in funding programs to educate potential innovators. George
> Washington University lends credibility to Wegner's positions which are
> clearly detrimental to inventors and America's interests. We removed George
> Washington University from consideration for such projects. "
> 
> I had intended to write about Pilch's web pages several weeks ago when I
> stumbled across them by accident.  But I was very busy and forgot to follow
> up on the issue.  My very own page is located at
> http://swpat.ffii.org/akteure/riley/index.en.html. Like Mr. Horns I also
> rated a rant by Pilch.
> 
> I consider Pilch's disapproval an asset.

> Now, I have been wondering if it is worth the trouble to give Pilch and
> Wegner, and any others operating in the same way, appropriate exposure on
> and web site in conjunction with a media campaign which simply points to the
> facts?  Is anyone interested in creating an international team which would
> document and expose the shenanigans of those who act like they are Japanese
> Cat's Paws?

Please go ahead.  It would be a very good idea to carry out this
dispute on the Web.  I am forwarding your whole mail to the
patents@aful.org list, the only english-language mailing list on
european patent affairs which is publicly archived.

The gun is the word of the analphabet, and it is better to go to court
than to use guns.  But for us non-analphabets, we should be capable of
clarify things in a public discussion, and of recognising this kind of
effort as a civic duty, even if sometimes it is unjustly burdensome.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608   
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
130,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/

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