Slashdot Mirror
Peek Into European Patent Examining Cancelled
We were going to run European Patent Examiner John Savage's answers to 10 Slashdot questions today, but he emailed us this morning and asked us to pull them back because he was was in trouble over the interview. What he had to say was informative, non-controversial, and would not have hurt his employer's reputation at all, but we don't want John to lose his job or face disciplinary action on our account. Anyway, get ready for a slightly unusual Slashdot interview guest next week: Celeb chef and self-described "culinary cartographer" Alton Brown.
I guess we can infer their stance on the issues: our decisions are definitive, reality is often in error.
Free Mac Mini Yeah, it's
Nice to know that informing and educating people about a legal process can put you in danger of losing your job.
"Prejudice is wrong; you should hate everyone the same."
Now, everyone will just be wondering what they're hiding...
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Any chance the interview will be an MP3 clip?
Would there be a way to put some pressure to the European Patent Office? After all we are thousands of voices...
And, no, I don't mean pressure in DoS style. More something like a petition.
Not necissarily. Most companies actually require that employees not say anything publically that could be construed as being "from the company", even though they're just from an employee. Basically only marketting shmoes "trained in the process" can speak to the public.
Most all statements "from the company" are passed through PR people and lawyers to make sure the company doesn't get in trouble for liabelous comments made by an employee.
That's what more likely happened, just more sue-fearing rather than business manipulation.
It might be interesting to publish a list of the questions chosen for this. It would give us more insight into what they're trying to hide, even if we don't get to see the answers.
Teen Angel - a Ghost Story
Excatly, and that means he knows better than to question the US Government [real player]
Yeah, right.
This will really make his employer look great!
I stole this Sig
What the hell? Is /. slowly becoming the online equivalent of 'Good Morning America'?
Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
He also said that the questions weren't very good either...
A lot of big organizations, such as corporations, government agencies, etc, and those smaller agencies descended from them, tend to want tight control over the information going out.
Not knowing anything about this situation in particular, but from my experience I'd say the trouble came about because the answers weren't gone over by their Public Affairs and Legal weenies before he sent them out.
If they HAD been white-washed by Legal and PA, then something in the answers must have worried someone. Don't forget that anything that comes from someone associated with an organization is assumed "expert opinion" and "official policy" even if the first two statements in the matter directly refute those assumptions.
Alternatively, someone's boss may have an excessively high cover-my-arse quotient and decided to play it by the safest method: Don't tell 'em nothin', and they won't have anythin' on yeh. We don't have a grand conspiracy here, just ordinary every day middle-management pucker factor.
(Speaking as a former gov't employee...)
"The best argument against democracy is a five minute chat with the average voter."
--Winston Churchill
Well could an anonymous coward take the interview instead? since an anonymous coward is not a representitive of a company.
I'm sure a few answers scattered arround the place wouldn't get noiticed.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Well lets have a look at the questions.
Instead of a "Peek Into European Patent Examining " story, how about a "Peek Into European Panty Examining" story? I would love to find out who "Inspector 12" is.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
I'm also working at the EPO, as an external contractor. It is interesting to see that he has been forced to pull his interview, but there may be some good reasons for this. And probably none of them has anything to do with the questions per se. ;) or any other company getting lots of media coverage. Imagine you, as 'just another worker' would start answering questions from the press and so on. No matter how much you would state that you do not represent them or their opinion etc. etc., try thinking how easy it is for a newspaper, website, radio station, etc. to simply edit those statements away.. Not only would you risk ending up having your statements treated as if they were 'authoritative', you would, with good reason, piss your boss off.
Imagine you working for a huuuuge company, say IBM, Microsoft, WorldCom
One thing is to talk to your friends about the good and bad things happening at your job. An entirely different thing is to publically make statements about it when you really have NO authority to do so. If you are working for someone, you need to be able to trust your employer, AND your employer needs to be able to trust you.
I could have said a lot of interesting things about how the EPO works, both positive and negative, but I won't do so in a public forum simply because it is not my job!
If you want answers from the EPO, or any other company or organization, there are usually public relations departments or the like. They are not always too helpful, but that should always be the place to start. And I wouldn't be all too surprised if they would indeed agree to do an interview with the slashdot crowd. After all the EPO takes pride in saying it's an organization of scientists, fundamentally differently organized than the american patent office, and atleast some people in high places do identify with our kind.
Love over Gold.
In fact, the EPO has nothing to do with the EU. It's a standalone organization. AFAIK it gets its funding from the member states and from the patent owners, not from the EU as such.
Love over Gold.
I'm volunteering to do the interview this week in lieu of the European patent examiner who unfortunately could not do the interview.
Go ahead, ask me anything.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
sPh
While the USPO will happily grant patents for software algorithms, the EPO does not do this, and clearly states so in its material, and when questioned. (I've asked the EPO myself.) No, the EPO does not allow such blatant exploitation by twisted business. No... you have to be much more sneaky, describing your algorithm as a 'machine' that just happens to be implemented as software.
As so often in Europe, we have the same dirt as everywhere else, but it's cloaked in bureaucratic verbage.
It would have been fun to rip into an EPO spokesman, but it would have to be someone with the authority so actually answer questions such as "How many US firms have already registered software patents while the EPO is refusing these from little European software firms?"
You can tell I've not much hope for the EPO. They may be scientists, but that does not stop them being fools.
My blog
I was hoping for an interview with a Nutritional Anthropologist, but I guess we'll have to settle for Alton.
slashdot broke my sig
He probably hasn't been on Iron Chef because the show hasn't been filmed for years; it's just that it's slowly making its way over here. Most anime takes 2 years to get here, and the dubbing on Iron Chef is (generally) higher quality (not that I think need it at all, but...)
He has said in an interview that he doesn't consider himself a chef, and holds master chefs in high regard as artists, but is annoyed that they publish cookbooks, because "ordinary" people will never be able to duplicate their efforts. He likens it to Picasso publishing a "Paint like Picasso" book. Check out www.goodeatsfanpage.com for that interview, as well as transcripts to every show, and all sorts of good stuff.
What I'd really like to ask Alton is how much control he has over the recipes that appear on foodtv.com. His herb spread recipe from "Good Milk Gone Bad" seems to have been altered quite a bit, and in fact, the spices he used are listed as an alternative! Also, two of the recipes from "Deep Purple" (eggplant) seem to have suffered similar fates. In the episode, he made a big deal about combining all the other ingredients for baba ghannouj first, and then adding the parsley last, because, "You don't want to pulverise that parsely" (or it will turn bitter). But the foodtv recipe listing just tosses it all in at once. It also shortenes the draining time (for removing bitter alkaloids) from 30 minutes to 10 minutes. And though it's nice that they doubled the Eggplant Pasta recipe to serve more people, they seem to have quadrupled the olive oil, tomatoes, and basil; and again, the prep time is reduced (purging time given in the show was 15 minutes + 1-3 hours; here, it's 30 minutes). As picky as AB is about methods, I find this very strange.
WMBC freeform/independent online radio.
I'd say this guy's employer just did his company a disservice.
I'd be suprised if he had been allowed to answer questions. It's just plain old SOP that release of information from government agencies must go through the agencies' procedures. This means that the garbage man isn't able to tell me how he drives the truck and works the trash compactor without a policy statement from the mayor's office saying what to tell me. Is there still a bank secrets law that keeps bankers from saying how much cash reserve they have to maintain, etc? Maybe there's secrecy laws for patent offices? And their probably secret too.
Supra et Ultra
Somebody who is recently retired would still have a fresh view, yet not be at risk of being fired (unless they can yank your pension if you make them look bad).
Table-ized A.I.
The next logical question then is why doesn't slashdot submit the questions using the proper channels?
This has the two-fold benefit of having "our" questions answered and making them look good. That way I can glide past all the "look at how secretive and curropt the EPO is!" posts...
Its a litigious(sp?) world we live in, and it would be horrible for a blatantly bad patent application (you know, the kind that get approved in the US everyday?) to take the EPO to court based upon some answer that a guy (who just so happens to be employed by the EPO, therefor acts as their agent) gave, forcing the patent to be granted, and set the precedent for bad patents!
just becuase we are geeks doesn't mean we can't follow some rules.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Mr. Alton Brown,
I'll be doing an annual turkey fry with a couple buddies before summer's end and the question of brining has come up. What exactly does the brining process do to the bird? What part does the sugar vs. the salt vs. H2O play? I've observed that brined chicken breasts develop a nice brown color and are juicy but would like a more scientific perspective, especially with respect to brining + frying. One concern is that the sugar on the skin may carbonize under the high cooking temperature.
I plan on brining the turkey for a day, followed by a day of sitting outside the brine, but injected with a buttery mix of herbs and spices. I'm also a little concerned that the effects of brining may be lost if the bird is left outside the brine so long before cooking. A scientific perspective would help me in better approximating the ideal way to go about this. Thanks! I really enjoy and look forward to your shows, the bee puppets in the honey episode were hillarious!
The one with the homemade bacon - Scrap Iron Chef...took on both Iron Chef and Junkyard Wars at once. Clever show!
Will you come over to my place and fix dinner for me and my family?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Don't you just want to kick emerill's ass?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Why mod this down? It's not clear if the interview will be posted next week or if questions will be accepted next week. I really wanted this one answered!
I'd say that his manager needs to read items 1 through 95 of the Clue Train Manifesto. He seems to be under the mistaken assumption that preventing conversations maintains the secrecy of the Guy Behind the Curtain, when in fact all it does is point out that he has no clothes on.
(Woohoo, a new low in mixed metaphors! *grin*)
"The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth." -- Bene Gesserit Precept
People do it all the time, it just takes a simple disclaimer, the opinions expressed are that of the author and not that of his employer. Unless I miss my guess I've seen THAT wording used HERE before. It is too bad but speaking of bad publicity, this in my mind makes them as guilty as any defendent claiming the 5th amendment. If you can't speak for fear of incriminating yourself does that NOT imply you are guilty ???
Granted the liable laws in Europe are much stiffer so there may be circumstances I am not aware of....
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I understand the risks that some sources make pickup statements as an authority. My concern is: Why should the patent office, a PUBLIC institution that grants lucritive temporary monopolies on IDEAS, not be subjected to public scrutany???
What are the REAL risks? What's the worse that could happen if our friend was allowed to talk freely? Maybe people would lose confidence with current policy!!! Oh no!!!
The people who silenced this guy should be held liable. He has every right to talk about his experience and role in public policy, without fearing losing his job. This isn't a corporation, and it isn't the military. It's a PUBLIC institution.
"Communism is like having one [local] phone company " - Lenny Bruce
The EU likes to pretend that it's an oh so noble institution, whereas the US is run by mobsters. Well, most Europeans are fully aware that the EU and the European Parliament are staffed by some of the laziest, overly bureaucratic morons and crooks that this planet has ever seen.
Infact, the politicians behind the EU are somewhat like Nazis. They were NOT ELECTED BY THE PUBLIC, and have just taken power by blinding the governments of member states with nonsense about 'improved trade' and 'less economic barriers'.
Countries that are in the EU are forced to take on the laws as the EU dictates. Britain has a say in what laws it wants to take, but if the other states vote against it.. then 60,000,000 British citizens will be subject to a law that even their government opposes!
The EU parliament are nothing but Nazis in liberal clothing.
mogorific carpentry experiments
The second question is why?
The third question is whom should we direct these valid questions to?
The fourth question is what excuse do the proper authorities have for not answering public questions?
The fifth question is which question was it that trigered all this mess?
The sixth question is what *are* they hiding?
The seventh question is whose interests really matter
The final question is how many newspapers, websites, etc. we can get to comment on this way of refusing the public to learn what is going on.
In Murphy We Turst
It would not seem so.
In todays litigious society, where you are sued or at least criticized for the smallest of slips, where journalists are scavenging for every single bit of news to check where somebody is contradicting himself, why so many people wonder why is that organizations of any kind require to organize the way they talk to the public at large?
Common people, those of you that are actually employed know quite well why this is necessary (I did not say desirable). Any one here complaining that has actually held a job knows that you can't go and talk about what your employer do without clearance. Deal with it properly and grow up.
Scrutiny does not have anything to do here: ask the same questions to the relevant person in the same organization and lets see what happens. If they refuse to answer then you may have a point about the organization attempting to elude scrutiny.
To those of you complaining without ever having had a job or the responsibility of working for a complex organization: get some life experience before pontificating. Or are you trolling?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Scrutiny DOES mean allowing any Joe Employee to say whatever he wants (minus libel) about the organization without having it going through channels who's sole purpose is to censor and omit corruption and incompetence.
Doing otherwise only makes it more difficult for the rest of us to detect corruption, incompetence in a public institution whose purpose is to promote the advancement of technology by providing an incentive, not act as the corrupt wing of government who lines the pockets of IP attorneys and other patent cartels.
I don't know about you, but I don't trust corrupt beaurcrats as much as I trust as WorldCom/Enron executive.
"Communism is like having one [local] phone company " - Lenny Bruce