L’office quotidien des brevets: un curieux visiteur à l’OEB.

Etude de philosophie sociale

Abstract

This PhD dissertation provides an account of an inquiry conducted in the world of European patents, and more particularly within the European Patent Office (EPO). The study explores new ways of considering patent law by re-describing the daily practices within the patent administration. Unlike political philosophical approaches, the social philosophy proposed here does not seek to justify patent law a priori by resorting to abstract construction: it does not focus on criticism or justification, but on the exploration of possibilities. The methodology is inspired by ethnography: the inquirer builds on field work. An epistemological figure, similar to Haraway’s “modest witness”, is coined in order to clarify the status of the inquirer: the curious visitor. The thesis reformulates the concept of the office (in lower case), creating a link between the granting of patents and the philosopher Etienne Souriau’s concept of "oeuvre à faire" (the work to be done”). The thesis takes the "outcry" of bureaucrats–that is, the refusal of examiners to be seen as mere "producers" of patents–both as a starting point and as a point of arrival, because this event has transformed both the inquiry and the inquirer.

Date of Award	7 Oct 2019
Original language	French
Awarding Institution	Université de Strasbourg. Ecole doctorale Augustin Cournot
Supervisor	Matthias Dorries (Promotor)