Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO's Dutch Scandal Leaves Battistelli and His Cronies on the Run

The management is now afraid of the staff, not vice versa

Game over



Summary: EPO management is making concessions and issues statements which admit defeat, allowing the staff union to continue its activities

LEAKS ABOUT EPO misconduct have shaken the Office (patents establishment of Europe, seeking to substitute members states' establishments) and put its management at peril. Managers now realise that there is serious risk to their career. It's a permanent threat to mischievous and/or corrupt folks, so they are backtracking on assaults on the staff, or at least so they claim (publicly, to save face). "While nothing is promised other than a kick-off meeting," writes IP Kat, "the intention would appear to be to formally recognise the staff union, SUEPO. It remains to be seen if such formal recognition will include the actions that the Hague Court of Appeal ordered the EPO to undertake, including unblocking SUEPO's emails to staff members, abolishing the President's power to dictate the terms of industrial action, and allowing for collective bargaining. We shall see what develops and as always expect that our readers will have strong views to express in the comments below (bearing in mind the rules at the bottom of this post)."



EPO management has also been attacking the Enlarged Board, which IP Kat writes about today [1, 2].

Let's be clear again about the track record of EPO management. It has been spying on its staff like Microsoft spies on its so-called 'customers' and it has consistently been ignoring laws, even when these laws were upheld by a Court. Last month while I was away in Singapore IP Kat published "The EPO: privileged and immune says the President"; the so-called 'president' is the the arrogant Benoît Battistelli, who tried hard to derail the protests of staff, despite a Court's ruling in favour of the staff.

IP Kat also published the article "Dutch Minister trumps Court of Appeal ruling, reasserts EPO immunity". This Dutch minister is corrupt and in later parts of this series about the Dutch affair we shall show why. "The gist of the article in de Volkskrant," according to a source, "is that the Dutch Minister of Justice Ivo Opstelten has made a decision on the basis of the EPO's immunity from execution of court orders under international law, an immunity which the Court had previously lifted. Whether the minister is correct, either in terms of law or in terms of policy, appears to be open to question."

Well, the minister is corrupt, as we found out just days after this source spoke about it. He is no longer even a minister. We'll cover this in the future. Spoiler alert: He quit over payment to a drug-trafficker a few weeks ago. "The Dutch Minister of Justice," said to us one source, "the guy who said that the court ruling is not to be executed, resigned." There is a lot of corruption here (more of it is being leaked to us every week). Responding to what he or she called "Techrights publications over Balkan standards," this source wrote: "After having succeeded to "convince" the Croatian journalist to withdraw his article in December, the next step would be to try to get it off your web site as well. I am sure they at least thought about it. Possibly legal steps? In any such case, would it be possible to share the data you have, in order to make them available somewhere else?"

As always, since all the stories here are licensed very liberally, we encourage everyone to copy and spread them (in forums, other news sites, and so on). The more copies of the information in existence, the harder it will become to censor. Attribution helps but is not a priority. By all means, publishing Techrights articles in more places, e.g. anonymous blogs, would discourage these censorship attempts (intended to purge evidence of crime) and make veiled threats obsolete. In a way, the more this information spreads, the better the collective protection becomes.

We are going to write more on what happened in the Netherlands in the coming days. We will also comment on other corruption which emanates from the EPO affairs (extending well beyond Croatia).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
GNOME GUADEC 2022 & Debian Albanian women trafficked to Mexico?
Reprinted with permission from the Free Software Fellowship
Sainsbury's: It Takes Us Up to Two Days to Respond to Customers Upon Escalation (and Sometimes Even More Than Two Days)
It not only does groceries but also many other things, even banking
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day