Bonum Certa Men Certa

Süddeutsche Zeitung Article About the EPO's Investigation Unit and Control Risks Group

Control Risks



Summary: 'Storm in the Glasshouse', an article from one week ago in the German media (covering Control Risks being given taxpayers' money to protect mischievous management)

AN ARTICLE from Süddeutsche Zeitung was mentioned the other day because it covered the EPO's reliance on spies to intimidate staff and journalists (Control Risks involvement is confirmed by the EPO). We now have the collection of translations [PDF] from SUEPO's Web site and here is the article in English:



31 May 2015, 19:06

Storm in the Glasshouse



The European Patent Office won’t settle down. New internal memos, directed against staff representatives, are causing a stir. The in-house investigation department is said to be understaffed, and word has it that crisis-management specialists are to be brought in from London to look into accusations of bullying.

By Katja Riedel

The law gazette Juve isn’t given to using excitable language, so if Juve compares the crisis at the European Patent Office (EPO) with storm front Niklas over Munich, then it’s obviously taking the situation seriously. There has indeed been a storm brewing for many months in the glass building on the bank of the Isar, and it looks as if a very brief break in the weather has already come to an end.

“Social dialogue” is what they called the round of peace talks ordered by the chief executive body, when the President of the Office, Benoît Battistelli, and representatives of the union Suepo, up to now not officially recognized, were supposed to start talking to each other. This dialogue, which was supposed to end not only with conflicts resolved but also with the union being formally recognized, now appears to have gone on the rocks again, after just the second meeting, held last Thursday. That, at least, is how the staff representatives see things. Smoke screening, a marketing ploy for the President – word has it that nothing else came of the talks, and nothing else is to be expected. On the other hand, the Office, at least according to its spokesman Rainer Osterwalder, is hoping that the path to discussions will not be closed again, having hardly been open. People had been hoping for a great deal from the talks.

The Administrative Council, on which representatives of the 38 Member States sit, had called for this dialogue, because the conflict between personnel and management has been damaging the function and image of the EPO for a long time. The Office is facing great changes, but for more than a year the staff representatives have been protesting loudly about Battistelli’s plans for reform. The reforms are supposed to enhance the efficiency of patent examinations, and that has in fact been achieved. The productivity of the patent examiners is said to have risen by 16 percent in the first three months of the year. The Member States are benefitting from this. Germany has apparently received 140 million Euros from the profits achieved by the EPO, according to the staff union. Protecting intellectual property is an attractive prospect for the individual states – and the more patents that are issued, the more lucrative it gets.

Anonymous accusations, defamations and threats piling up

For the staff, the reforms are bringing about a lot of changes, such as a new, performance-based career system; this involves checks and balances for the employees, and they are protesting about them. Anyone not turning up for work because of illness, for example, gets deductions from their salary. The staff are afraid that the pressure on the patent examiners may well lead to more patents, but that quality is going to suffer. This concern has recently been voiced not only by the people at the Office; patent attorneys are getting worried too.

The fact that the mood at the EPO has deteriorated so much can also be attributed to the internal activities of what is known as the Investigation Unit, a body which looks into accusations against members of staff, for example due to bullying. Any staff member can make these accusations against colleagues and superiors, which results in the taking of statements from witnesses, and only at the end do the accused get a chance to be heard. Over the past few months this unit has had a lot to do, with the anonymous accusations, defamations, and threats piling up.

One particular scandal has sprung up over a ban on entering the premises which Battistelli has imposed on a judge who is actually an independent operative. Battistelli suspected him of being the originator of these kinds of letters, and kicked him out – for reasons of securing evidence, according to the President. The judge can in fact only be suspended by the Administrative Council, as the highest executive body, and they only approved the action after it had been carried out. This was followed by a storm of indignation, but Battistelli has stuck to his guns. Now a new internal investigation is under way, which again is causing a stir, and promises to be anything but promising with regard to the peace discussions which were agreed on. This investigation is directed specifically against staff representatives. Which of them have been named is not yet known. Witnesses are already being heard in pursuit of accusations of bullying, and those accused have still not been approached. The unit is bringing in help for the new investigation. Because the in-house team is said to be understaffed, an outside company has been asked to assist, says EPO spokesman Osterwalder. The people concerned are said to be the London-based Control Risks Group, who carry out investigations on an international level, and who, in their own words, “help organizations with political and security risks in complex and hostile environments”. Real crisis specialists, in other words. It was not the President, but the department itself which chose this company, as EPO spokesman Osterwalder is keen to emphasise. Battistelli himself is apparently not informed of the contents of such investigations, and any staff member can make a report and set an investigation in motion. It is only when the facts have been determined that the President decides on disciplinary measures.

But that’s small solace for the union representatives who may have been accused, and who are still supposed to be negotiating with him about social peace.

Icy climate in the European Patent Office: Behind the bright façade, the path to discussions between staff and management is proving to be very rocky indeed.


There is a lot more coming about the Control Risks Group affair. We have more to show in days to come, so stay tuned.

Recent Techrights' Posts

More on "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
"pepe the frogs"
Dalai Lama Succession as Evidence That Determined, Motivated People Can Reach Their Nineties
And we need to quit talking about their death all the time
Many Lawyers (for Microsoft) and 1,316 Pages to Pick on a Litigant in Person Who Exposed Serious Microsoft Abuses
Answers must be given
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 08, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 08, 2025
Slopwatch: Turning Bugs Into FUD About "Linux", Getting Basic Facts Wrong
all the screenshots are of fake articles; we don't want to link to any
Technical Reasons, Not Politics: With Wayland "it feels a lot like Linux from 20-25 years ago, which is horrendously frustrating, because it feels like we wasted one or two decades of progress and stability"
Lately, quite a few benchmarks were published to show Wayland compares poorly compared to what we had
PCLinuxOS Recovering From Fire
It looks like a nightmare scenario, where even backups onsite get destroyed
Links 09/07/2025: More Heatwaves, Officials Culled in Russia
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/07/2025: XScreensaver and Resurrection
Links for the day
Links 08/07/2025: "Cyberattack Deals Blow to Russian Firmware" and "Cash Remains King"
Links for the day
FSF40 T-shirt message
by Alex Oliva
Gemini Links 08/07/2025: Creativity, Gotify with NUT Server, and Sudo Bugs
Links for the day
Links 08/07/2025: Sabotage of Networking Infrastructure, Microsoft XBox Game Pass Deemed “Unsustainable”
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/07/2025: Ancillary Justice and Small Web July
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 07, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 07, 2025
Layoffs and Shutdowns at IBM, Not Just Microsoft
Same as Microsoft
The FSF's (Free Software Foundation, Inc.) 2025 Summer Fundraiser Already Past Halfway Line
This is where GNU/Linux actually started
With Workers Back From a Holiday Weekend, Microsoft Layoffs Carry on, More Waves to Come
Now it's Monday and people are bad to work, even some journalists
Mozilla Had No Good Reason to Outsource Firefox Development to Microsoft
What does Mozilla plan to do when GitHub shuts down?
Mozilla Firefox Did Not Die, It Got Killed
To me it'll always look like Mozilla got killed by its sponsors, especially Google, which had a conflict of interest as a sponsor
You Need Not Wave a Rainbow Flag This Month to Basically Oppose Arseholes Looking to Disrupt and Divide the Community
Don't fall for it
Dan Neidle, Whom Brett Wilson LLP SLAPPed (on Behalf of Corrupt Rich Tax Evaders), Still Fighting the Good Fight
Neidle fights for the poor people
What Miguel de Icaza and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
Similar aims, different methods
Wayland Should Start by Dumping Its Very Ugly Logo
Wayland wins the "ugliest logo" award every year
Stop Focusing on Hair Colours, Focus on Corporate Agenda
If someone commits a crime, it does not matter if his or her hair was mostly white or there was no hair or a wig or whatever
Links 07/07/2025: Science, Conflicts, and a Fictional K-pop Group
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: Being a Luddite and Announcement of Gotify
Links for the day
Links 07/07/2025: XBox Effectively 'Dead', DMCA Subpoena Versus Registrar
Links for the day
The 'Corporate Neckbeard' is Not the "Good Guy"
Works for IBM
The Nasty Smear (and Stereotype) of "Neckbeard" or "Greybeard" is Ageism
This is the sort of stuff they might try to volley at critics of Wayland
Why Many of Us Use X Server and Will Continue to Use It For Many Years to Come
Don't make this about politics
Microsoft's Nat Friedman Became Unemployed the Same Time the SLAPPs Against Techrights Started Coming From His Friends (Weeks After We Had Exposed Scandals About Him and the Serial Strangler, His Best Friend, Who Got Arrested a Few Days Later)
Nat Friedman is not "Investor, entrepreneur"
Brett Wilson LLP Uses Threats to Demand Changes to Pages or Removal of Pages Without Even Revealing Which Staff Member Does That (Sometimes People From Another Firm!)
This has been in the public for years
Dan Neidle Said "It Really Then Became a Job of Tormenting" Lawyers Like Brett Wilson LLP (Who Threatened Him for Exposing Crimes, Just Like They Threatened My Wife a Few Months Later)
he and his wife decided to take on the evil people and their evil lawyers
Large Language Models (LLMs) Externalise Their Cost to the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
"The forty-sixth Free Software Bulletin is now available online!"
Weeding Out Extremism in Our Community
To me it seems like Microsoft Lunduke is rapidly becoming like a "hate preacher" who operates online, breeding an extremist ideology or trying to soften its image
Censorship Versus Fact-Checking and Quality Control
It's not censorship but a matter of quality control
Reinforcing the Allegations Some More, Bryan Lunduke Digs His Own Grave
In his latest episodes he merely repeats his own lies, which I debunked using evidence right from his own mouth
Global Warming and Free Software as a Force of Mitigation
we'll need to think about Software Freedom, not just brands like "Linux"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 06, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 06, 2025
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and TUI Rant
Links for the day