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Summary: Rumours are swirling around Wim Van der Eijk's absence, suggesting that he too may be a victim of Benoît Battistelli's iron fist

THE EPO is out of touch and Van der Eijk may be out of work, based on the latest rumours.

“Still it is not clear what are the long term plans as a move would lead to mass resignations from DG3, replacing DG3 with the UPC appears to be impossible without a diplomatic conference?”
      --AnonymousSeveral days ago we wrote about Van der Eijk's unlimited sick leave, which seems likely to have little or nothing to do with sickness (as we explained yesterday). As Chairman of the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA) and DG3 VP, Van der Eijk is probably the only remaining potent threat to Benoît Battistelli because the boards are, in principle, independent from Battistelli's corruptible EPO (in practice Battistelli just breaks the rules).

Over at IP Kat we are seeing some interesting comments. Among them:

Mr Battistelli's plan: Get rid of the present VP 3, Introduce "his" reform of the Boards of Appeal; Install there his choice of new VP3. The new chapter in the EPOsaga: "Taming the boards" The present VP3, Mr Van der Eijk, is on unlimited sick leave and thus out of function. Nervous breakdown? Most likely.

Another comment says:

According to what I have heard from multiple sources the move of DG3 is not for reasons of independence, but simply retaliation for having angered the top management, mainly by R19/12 and refusal of the enlarged board to agree to the dismissal of the DG3 member under investigation.

Still it is not clear what are the long term plans as a move would lead to mass resignations from DG3, replacing DG3 with the UPC appears to be impossible without a diplomatic conference?

Also quite obviously the german delegation in the AC would be strongly against weakening Munich as Europe's patent capital, so all those plans might go nowhere as the other delegations will be very reluctant to outvote Germany in that matter.

Perhaps the best possible explanation is this:

1) EPO Enlarged Board tells Chairman: "disobey President when necessary"

The European Patent Office (EPO) Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) has issued an interlocutory decision in case R2/14

2) The present VP3, Mr Van der Eijk, is on unlimited sick leave and thus out of function.

who would ever think that there is any connection between 1) and 2)

One can see more context in the threads, but most comments are of no relevance to this. We kindly ask anyone with information to conside contacting us anonymously. We really wish to get to the bottom of this and end the uncertainty.

"The EPO should be a member of the Council of Europe," Florian Müller wrote today, "but it's not because it wants free rein to violate human rights." ⬆