Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Surveillance, Threats, and Patronisation of Dutch Legal System Covered in Dutch Article From De Volkskrant

Summary: Another European article covering the spying scandal at the EPO, adding new bits of information about the practice

IN our previous post we mentioned an article from De Volkskrant, for which a translation had been provided. We present it below in full; it's intended for future reference and permanent record. Among the topics covered is the Hague ruling which we recalled earlier today.



Siemens and Battistelli



Benoît Battistelli (r.) in 2011, presenting a certificate to Siemens’ CEO. €© EPA

Patent agency hires detectives to investigate own staff

The European Patent Organisation (EPOrg) in Rijswijk has hired a controversial British agency to investigate staff representing unions. According to employees, the investigations are the latest weapon to be added to EPOrg president Benoît Battistelli’s reign of terror.

By: Anneke Stoffelen. 5 June 2015, 02:00

The EPOrg has five offices and evaluates and issues European patents for all imaginable products. The Rijswijk office has 2,700 highly educated employees from all over Europe.

A conflict has been mounting between employees and the top of the organisation for a while now. EPOrg president Benoît Battistelli has been implementing changes to labour conditions without employees having any say. Anyone offering criticism may expect to suffer reprisals.

Human rights violation

In March, EPOrg employees told de Volkskrant how a system administrator who forwarded a union e-mail to colleagues was removed from his desk by security guards and taken outside.

In February, The Hague Court of Appeal judged that the EPOrg violates human rights as it thwarts access to unions. The EPOrg pays no attention to the decree and as an international organisation, claims its judicial immunity.

For the same reason, the Ministry of Justice has likewise dismissed the Court of Appeal’s decree. The government also has a financial interest in making it easy on the EPOrg: the Rijswijk office yields the Dutch economy an estimated €855 million per year.

Investigation

The EPOrg has hired British agency Control Risks to investigate its own staff. An EPOrg spokesperson has stated that Control Risks has only been flown in for extra support, as its internal investigative unit cannot handle the workload alone.

But according to lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld of the EPO’s staff union SUEPO, systematic investigations are being carried out on employees known to be active within unions or those who have been chosen as staff representatives. The Rijswijk office has multiple cases at the moment.

An employee who wishes to remain anonymous says the Control Risks investigation is only intended to gather information with which to either fire critical colleagues or to drive them to the desperate point of resigning.

These claims were denied by the EPOrg spokesperson: ‘I cannot make any statements on individual cases. But in general, employees are only investigated after a report of misconduct, in cases of suspicions of fraud or intimidation, for example.'

A few years ago, Control Risks garnered attention in Germany when Deutsche Telekom hired the company to spy on a journalist. Deutsche Telekom’s top management wanted to find out which employee was leaking confidential information to the press.

SUEPO fears that a similar situation is going on at the EPOrg. A Rijswijk employee shows us a warning he received this week from his mail server stating that his private account was accessed by an unfamiliar person. ‘I can’t prove that this has anything to do with the EPOrg, but I am quite concerned.'


Read that last paragraph again. Sounds like the work of a cracker or a government-employed cracker (which is the same but more "professional", often shielded by Orwellian NDAs). The EPO sure has gotten itself into more of a scandal. It's clear for all to see who has the moral high ground here.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
 
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Snowy Photos and utism is a Spectrum
Links for the day
Microsoft-Sponsored Xenophobia and Nationalism
IBM is very similar in this regard
Vintage is Sometimes Better
Why can't we get back to "simple" if (or where) "simple" means better?
Climate Breakdown Means We'll be Publishing More, Not Less
Press freedom will be a common, recurring theme
Our 5-Year Geminispace Anniversary is Coming Up
I still remember when Gemini Protocol was quite new
It's Right to Point Out Violence From the Right
Violence is a recurring theme
Tentative Summary of Things to Publish in Project 2030
I'll still be in my forties by then
Web Browsers That "Do Hey Hi" (AI)
State-of-the-art plagiarism or "autocomplete on steroids" (not coined by us, nevertheless a nice description) don't have much/any prospect
Links 20/09/2025: Hardware Projects in View, Some Independent Publishers About Russia Prosper After Cheeto Cuts Funding
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Options and TV Time Machine
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Retrocomputer, Antique Phone Experience, and More
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Internet Shutdowns, Media Censorship, and Climate Worries
Links for the day
About 700 New Gemini Capsules in 13 Months (or 54 Per Month)
4.8K would represent a 20% increase
Rust People: Drain the Swap, You're Holding It Wrong
Does Rust make sense?
Techrights the Name Turns 15
About 6 weeks from now we turn 19
Microsoft is Running Out of Time and Floating Fake Figures, Fake Projects, Fake Narratives, Fake Excuses
Also, a lot of Microsoft's "revenue" claims are circular financing (i.e. Microsoft buying from itself, which means Ponzi-like fraud)
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, linuxconfig.org, and Plagiarised Phoronix
Many articles out there are nowadays fake
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 19, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Navigating the Pressures of Modern Life and SpellBinding Accidentally Wrote Another Gemini Server
Links for the day