Bonum Certa Men Certa

More European Politicians Take on the EPO for Ignoring the Rule of Law

Marc TarabellaSummary: The wrath of European politicians remains a problem for Benoît Battistelli and his team (Team Battistelli), which has thus far used a political fluke to claim immunity from the law and even snub court rulings

OVER A HUNDRED European politicians have already complained about the EPO's scandals, but little has actually happened politically. Not much has been practically changed. Law enforcement cannot do much because the EPO -- as odd as it may seem -- enjoys immunity. The EPO's management therefore ignores the law and ignores court orders. It's like the Mafia.



"Marc Tarabella," wrote SUEPO earlier today, "a Belgian member of the European Parliament has posed questions to the European Commission" and a translation into English [PDF] was provided as follows. Quoting Tarabella (shown above):

Parliamentary questions



29 June 2015

Question for written answer to the Commission Rule 130 Marc Tarabella (S&D)

E-010497-15

Subject: Serious problems of governance in the European Patent Office (EPO)

Attempts have been made recently to alert public opinion to the particularly harmful social climate that has prevailed for several months in the EPO (expulsion of trade unions, harassment, multiple suicides, invasion of privacy, etc.). The situation has become very worrying for the 7 000 people employed by the EPO, who are facing extreme pressure from management, which is imposing intolerable productivity targets on employees without even offering them the minimum guarantees provided for under national labour laws.

The Hague Court of Appeal, in a decision dated 17 February 2015, ruled that trade union rights had been seriously breached and urged the EPO to amend its internal rules. However, EPO President Benoît Battistelli rejected this ruling under the pretext that it would violate the EPO’s immunity.

The EPO therefore seems to be unacceptably abusing its status as an international organisation in order not to provide the basic guarantees of European democracy.

1. What is the relationship between the Commission and the EPO?

2. Knowing that the Commission sets great store by respect for fundamental rights in Europe, where does it stand in general terms on these issues?

Original language of question: FR

Last updated: 1 October 2015

Legal notice



Another (much more recent) question was also translated into several languages [PDF]. The English translation, much like the above, shows that the main concern is the EPO ignoring the rule of law:

Motion by Gesthuizen/Kerstens concerning adherence by the European Patent Organisation to international legislation – Adoption of the budgetary statements of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (XIII) and the Animal Health Fund (F) for 2016 – Main content



Lower House of the States General



Session year 2015-2016

34 300 Adoption of the budgetary statements of the Ministry of Economic Affairs XIII (XIII) and the Animal Health Fund (F) for 2016

MOTION BY MEMBERS GESTHUIZEN AND KERSTENS

Proposed 15 October 2015

The House, having heard the deliberations, is of the opinion that the conduct of directors of international organisations which has no relationship to their international representation but which does result in a breach of national rules, should not be covered by diplomatic immunity;

finds that in April 2014 the government presented a Plan of Approach with measures No. for taking more severe action against persons with diplomatic immunity who have 22 breached the law of the Netherlands,

finds that those measures only address traffic fines and criminal offences and do not address breaches of employee rights as established at the European Patent Organisation by the Court;

requests the government, within the limits of the treaties, to do all that is possible to force the European Patent Organisation to adhere to international legislation,

and proceeds to the order of the day.

Gesthuizen

Kerstens

Parliamentary paper-34300-XIII-22 ISSN 0921 – Lower House, session year 2015-2016,

7371 The Hague 2015 34 300 XIII, no. 22


Recall the political interventions back in July and back in March or thereabouts (after Battistelli had arrogantly waived the law). The pressure on the EPO's management is increasing; severe action is just a matter of time because these scandals simply cannot be swept under a rug.

Incidentally, watch how 'transparency' works at the EPO. Earlier today David Brophy wrote that "the issue of poisonous priorities (and poisonous divisionals) is the subject of a referral to the European Patent Office (EPO) Enlarged Board of Appeal which is pending under reference G 1/15. [...] According to an announcement appearing yesterday on the EPO website, but carrying a date of October 2 (is this an error, the IPKat wonders, given that the date is exactly one month prior to the website publication date?), the President has decided to stay all proceedings before examination or opposition divisions where the outcome depends entirely on the answers that the Enlarged Board may give in G 1/15."

Revisit what we wrote earlier today about the relentless attacks on the Enlarged Board of Appeal. Outside scrutiny cannot be tolerated, as if the EPO is a country of its own, governed (without elections) by a few managers with big egos. Their reaction to anyone who dares to question their conduct is similar to that of the Saudi government. EPO managers derive their confidence from the silly immunity, whereas the Saudi regime derives it from the oil it sits on top of.

European politicians need to work together to put an end to the lawlessness of the EPO. No organisation should be exempted from laws, human rights guidelines and so on.

"The government is not trying to destroy Microsoft, it’s simply seeking to compel Microsoft to obey the law. It’s quite revealing that Mr. Gates equates the two."

--Government official



Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Before the OSI Was Bribed and Hijacked by Microsoft via GitHub and Compromised Management...
The OSI isn't even remotely "woke"
The OSI Has Been Silent for Over 3 Weeks, It Has a Severe Trust Issue After Promoting Microsoft and Proprietary GitHub
OSI took a lot of money from Microsoft to become a Microsoft lobbyist
Bribery is OK If You Work for Microsoft (No Punishment Expected)
It's very troubling and a symptom of a broken society/system when particular laws or rules are applied and enforced against some people but not against others
Someone Should Remind Microsoft Lunduke That Microsoft Hires Many Sexual Criminals and Pedophiles as Well
Microsoft Lunduke on an "expedition" to find one or more perverts, then generalise to everyone in the "community"
Cash Machines (ATMs) Make Mistakes and They're Proprietary Software
Correcting mistakes is a colossal challenge
Yes, Microsoft is the Problem
"I am no MS shill."
Another Failed Use Case for Chatbots (LLM): Legal Advice and Analysis
They're just some self-discrediting toy that costs way too much to operate
 
GAFAM 'Revolving Doors' at The Register and a "Bribe Price List"
"an analyst at Microsoft"
Microsoft Rapidly Shrinking (No, It's Not About Efficiency, It's About Unbearable Debt)
We'll soon see how much debt grew in the past quarter
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 29, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Corruption is the Standard Operating Procedure at the European Patent Office (EPO)
The EPO is a dictatorship that stains Europe
Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) at the European Patent Office (EPO) Requests an Urgent Meeting to Avoid Abolishing the Office
This is dictatorship led by the most corrupt
Slopwatch: Fake 'Linux' 'Articles' and Spamfarms/Slopfarms
at least 5 fake articles in one day
Gemini Links 29/07/2025: Wayland Unfit for Use and LLM Slop Faking One's Language Skills With Robot Communications
Links for the day
Nailing the "Hey Hi" (AI) Hype Bubble
So-called "hey hi" as they define it now is all about large companies or regimes remotely controlling the processes running on your machine and even your very own behaviour on your machine, which is in effect no longer your machine but some remotely controlled apparatus
"Four decades; Four freedoms; For all users" Now as a T-shirt
That's shown along the sidebar
Links 29/07/2025: Bad Climate and "Fair Software Licensing" Blasts Microsoft
Links for the day
Links 29/07/2025: Data Brokers Gone Wrong/Rogue and "Copyright Thicket"
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linuxconfig.org, Linuxsecurity.com, Fagioli, The Register
Today's "Slopwatch" isn't the first article about LLM slop
We Cover Topics Other Sites Are Too Afraid to Cover (Even When They Know the Facts)
It's not that they doubt the truth, they just realise there may be consequences for talking about it
They Try to Tell Us the Free Software Foundation Inc is Dying, But Its Revenue Doubled Since the Dot-Com Bubble Burst
Being in "Activism" is never easy; but it does positive things for society
It's About the Cost of Workers, Not the Fictional Skills Shortage (That Does Not Exist, the Media Spreads False and Sometimes Self-Fulfilling Narratives)
This issue isn't limited to computing, some dub it "globalism"
Links 29/07/2025: More Pushbacks Against Slop and More Praises of Tom Lehrer
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/07/2025: Purple Yarrow and Understanding Op Amps
Links for the day
This Monday WebProNews Absolutely Flooded the Web With Fake (LLM Slop) 'Articles' About "Linux", Google News Promoted Them as Legitimate
All of the following are fake articles attributed to pseudonyms or authors that don't exist; the images are also slop. Why does Google promote these?
Linuxiac is Not a Slopfarm, But at Least Some of Its Articles Are Machine-Generated Fakes
what we said about it was correct
Expect More Microsoft Layoffs
"Are more job cuts coming?"
Microsoft Behaving Like It's Running Out of Money to Pay Salaries
Does that seem like the behaviour expected from a company which claims it is "worth" trillions?
LWN Downtime Due to Linode, Not LLM Bots
"I’ve received an email letting me know that there is a potential for data loss."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 28, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 28, 2025
Nonfree Software in My Bank, by Richard Stallman
Updated 8 hours ago
Links 28/07/2025: Science, Health, and Conflicts
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/07/2025: Healthy Self-Image With Autism and a "New Life"
Links for the day
Links 28/07/2025: COVID-19 Sped up Brain Aging, "Circumvention is More Popular Than Compliance"
Links for the day
Richard Stallman is Usually Right Because He Thinks "Outside the Box"
he is able to observe society (mores and norms) as somewhat of an outsider
LWN Has Been Down for a Long Time, Another Casualty of LLM Bots?
Time will tell. How much time though?
Slopfarms Versus 'Linux' (and Against People Who Write Real Articles About GNU/Linux)
LLM slop in slopfarms by Brian Fagioli and Redazione RHC
Gemini Links 28/07/2025: Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray and Running pkgsrc in a FreeBSD Jail
Links for the day
Microsoft Turns News Sites Into Spamfarms
Is the site The Register MS the next IDG?
The Register MS/The Register US
On Saturday I contacted them for a comment (before issuing criticism)
Hacking revelations at Vatican Jubilee of Digital Missionaries
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 27, 2025