Summary: Patent institution of Europe is showing signs of tear as protests intensify and suppression of these protests -- as well as suppression of investigation -- intensifies as well

THE corrupt EPO is facing backlash and there are several internal protests these days (we will cover these in another post). More insiders are coming to us with evidence, showing quite clearly that even those within the institution recognise the severe problems. Nothing demonstrates this better than Battistelli's actions as covered the other day by IPKat. Battistelli, who already destroyed some regulatory/oversight structures, has just ousted part of the Investigation Unit. To quote IPKat: "In recent posts here and here Merpel has been spreading the word concerning the increasing disquiet and anxiety felt by her and many others regarding the running of the European Patent Office, its staff relations, finances and other issues. These posts, as well as those that preceded them, have generated a considerable amount of interest among readers, and a large email postbag from users of the Office from across the globe -- though to her sadness neither she nor the IPKat have yet received so much as a peep from any of the members of the European Patent Organisation's Administrative Council [even though she knows that quite a number of them are subscribers to this weblog].

"Merpel's disquiet is moving up a gear now, since she has since learned that a Board of Appeal member has just been suspended from office and escorted from the building. Apparently the ground of suspension is alleged misconduct and the EPO's Investigation Unit has been instructed to examine the matter. Merpel's intelligence reveals that the suspension (technically a "house ban", she believes, but with the same functionality as a suspension) was ordered by none other than President Battistelli himself. Now there is a structure for dealing with alleged misconduct on the part of Board of Appeal members -- but there are also checks and balances in place. One such check is that the power to suspend Board of Appeal members lies in the hands of the Administrative Council and not the President: if this were not the case, we would have the executive branch of the EPO having effective control of the judiciary -- a dangerous and undesirable situation."

Battistelli is trying to scare his staff, but it won't be long before they topple him. We welcome EPO staff to safely disclose information to us. We have never let a source down or failed to protect a source's identity. ⬆