Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Attacks Staff Representatives' Right to Work Just One Week Before Christmas

Summary: Reports from the ground in Berlin, mostly those relating to the suspension of staff representatives from SUEPO, the most popular union whose existence predates even the EPO itself

Last month we showed how the EPO had made sadistic threats to take Christmas away from slower workers. This is clearly inappropriate given the laws in Europe, let alone the stress that examiners are already subjected to. We've come to expect this kind of behaviour from management at the EPO, having already seen what it did a year ago just ahead of Christmas.



"Last month we showed how the EPO had made sadistic threats to take Christmas away from slower workers."Yesterday we learned that "Ms Hardon, Ms. Weaver and Mr. Brumme’s disciplinary hearings took place respectively last Thursday, Yesterday and TODAY" (that's the day before yesterday and yesterday).

As we noted two nights ago, EPO protests had spread to Berlin where there were "provenly over 120 [people who] were counted (at one specific time of the demonstration)," according to one source. Here are some banners used during this demonstration:

EPA



SUEPO reps



Maas



There was also a banner saying "SUEPO", which can be seen in the photo that we published the other night.

One person asked: "Are patent attorneys slowly “waking up and smelling the coffee?”"

This was said in reference to the AIPPI and EPI letters. There are some patent law firms (at least two prominent ones) that wrote critically about the EPO in recent days. Are we seeing the final shift or defection away from the EPO's management? Perhaps a defection to the likes of SUEPO? The number of people joining SUEPO is said to have soared recently, so the EPO's goons are now bullying (with lawyers) those who sign up new members while the goon in chief (with history), Željko Topić, threats staff that 'dares' to join (deterrence tactics). If this isn't union-busting action, what is?

"There are some patent law firms (at least two prominent ones) that wrote critically about the EPO in recent days."The Berlin protest was the fifth EPO protest (Office-wide) in just 4 weeks and "after the demo in Berlin," one person wrote, a "lawyer met high-ranked delegation of the German Ministry of Justice." Communication about these issues appears to be improving, despite character assassination attempts.

"This event was organised," we've learned, "as a follow up of Munich demonstration that took place last Thursday. On the 17.11, 2000 colleagues showed up despite the very short notice (about 2h advance warning). Another demonstration took place on the 4th of December, again in front of the Isar building. According to the police even more people turned up than the week before. On last Thursday’s March, an estimated 1500 people marched over the Hacker Brücke and finished in front of the Bavarian Ministry of Justice.

"As a fifth demonstration on the streets in 4 weeks (three above in Munich and one on the 1.12 in The Hague), in Berlin an estimated 130 staff gathered peacefully in front of the EPO entrance: while these figures may seem modest in absolute terms, this represents by far more than half of the 260 employees present on the day in this small duty station, let alone considering the fact that line managers and several services have explicit Vice-Presidential instructions that it is a “requirement of management not to a end demonstrations”."

"Are we seeing the final shift or defection away from the EPO's management? Perhaps a defection to the likes of SUEPO?"This is also true when it comes to the petition circulated in support of SUEPO representatives.

'In presence of SUEPO Central Lawyer," we've learned, "and protected by two (slightly amused) police officers, the participants held during one hour large banners calling upon the German Ministry of Justice and the German institutions to intervene in the matter and protect EU citizens on German (and EU) Soil.

"If this isn't union-busting action, what is?""At the German Ministry of Justice in Berlin, despite the short 1 week notice," the SUEPO Central Lawyer "was subsequently received by a high ranked delegation of the Ministry of justice.

"During the 30 minutes meeting, the SUEPO Lawyer had ample opportunity to hand out the letter drafted on behalf of SUEPO and expose to the small German team the key issues regarding the breach of fundamental rights, in essence reiterating calls made in the past (like in the public letter dated 20.06.15 by William Bourdon, Prof. Liesbeth Zegveld, Javier Ledesma and Alexander Holtz)."

Later today we want to share with readers some more details that we've got regarding these overt union-busting actions. We hope that more people will be able to see what is really going on inside the EPO. We generally find that there is too little (if any) information about it anywhere on the Web and this kind of information scarcity (induced by threats by the EPO's goons) is intended to prevent justice. Only in transparency and under public scrutiny can true justice be served.

Recent Techrights' Posts

An Update About Soylent News, With Jan Rinok "Back in the Saddle"
Burnout or "near burnout" a possibility when having to curate abuse
Rejecting 'Snoop-Phones' and Turning "Old" Phones (or Tablets) Into Freedom-Respecting Appliances
Paul Fernhout (pdfernhout.net) wrote back to Akira Urushibatathis this past weekend
Apple is the Company of Dictators and Worse
Apple is just another greedy corporation in search of sweatshops and even pedophiles (especially the high-profile ones)
Counting Unhatched Eggs Is Not Counting Chickens
Everything here will persist as normal
The "Infinite Bread"
The biblical story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 has software parallels
In Many Cases and in Many Different Ways, Technology Became Less Durable and Less Reliable Over Time
The "modern" things are more complex. And complexity is a foe or reliability and repair-ability.
Microsoft's LinkedIn is Losing Money, Traffic, and Hope; Now It Wants to Sell Its Users' Lifeblood (and Data)
Let this be a reminder of what social control media really is about
 
People Who Attempt to Take Down Correct Information Need a Doctor a Day
“Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.” ― George Orwell
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 20, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, October 20, 2025
Vista 11 is Sinking While Microsoft is PIPing (Mass Layoffs But Silent Layoffs)
We're witnessing a shift in platform dominance
Richard Stallman is Having a Good Week Already (Stallman Was Right About 'Clown Computing')
That alone is worth bringing up in his talk
When Prominent GNU/Linux Distros Are Run by Spies
What has Microsoft Canonical become?
More Publishers and Companies Nowadays Say "GNU/Linux", Not "Linux"
It's not to see InstallAware saying GNU/Linux this week
Google News is Now Promoting a Parasitic Slopfarm Called "findarticles.com", Where Plagiarism of "Linux" Articles is Rampant
Does Google even care about the slop epidemic? Google itself is a vendor of slop now (and it calls it "Gemini")
Gemini Links 20/10/2025: Pumpkin Carving, "Hey Hi", and Other Buzzwords
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Google News Promoting Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
What is the value of Google News if so many results in it are fake 'articles?
Our Uptime This Year Was Better Than AWS (Also a Lot Cheaper)
We never used "the cloud"
Amazon Web Shenanigans
An ongoing, experimental endeavour
Death of Elias Diem: FSFE mailing list archives hidden
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/10/2025: Louvre Museum Reveals Weakness, About 7 Million Protest US Turning Into Oligarchy/Monarchy
Links for the day
They Should Have Listened to Techrights Over a Month Earlier (Xubuntu Site Compromised)
we reported this issue about 40 days earlier and nobody did anything about it
Richard Stallman to Give Another Talk Today in Bavaria (Bavarian Academy of Science)
Tomorrow at 6 PM he speaks in Munich
Barry Kauler Explains That Puppy Linux and EasyOS Exclude Systemd to Keep Things Simple
Barry Kauler's Puppy Linux is in the community's hands. He now focuses on EasyOS and more.
Half a Year After Brian Fagioli Got Kicked Out of BetaNews for Slop He's Still Doing LLM Slop and Slop Images Targeting 'Linux' (Plagiarising Original Works)
If the Web gets polluted or flooded by slopfarms such as these, and Slashdot then sends traffic so these slopfarms (Slashdot probably doesn't do this intentionally), then real writers with real knowledge of GNU/Linux will lose the spark for publishing
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 19, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 19, 2025
Campaign of FUD Against Framework Laptops and GNU/Linux (Using Microsoft's Attack on Linux, 'Secure Boot')
Ritual Defamation Cult has turned its attention over to Framework
Microsoft Lunduke: Freedom of Speech Means Spreading What I Have to Say and Banning People I Disagree With
4Chan is one he aims for and he is siccing 4Chan trolls at people he doesn't like
Liberation From 'The Feed'
They rank things based on the editor's choice/ideology (he or she knows the sponsors, hence the masters)
Microsoft's Killing of Vista 10 Seems to Have Resulted in More Articles About GNU/Linux (But Also FUD)
We not only saw a rise in traffic, we also saw a remarkable rise in the number of articles
Today (a Day Before Richard Stallman Talk at TUM) There's a Patent Propaganda Event at TUM
Perhaps an opportunity for Dr. Stallman to rebut this "invention to patent" nonsense/fantasy (conflating monopolies with innovation)
OpenSource or "Open Source" as a Brand is Dying, Let's Get Back to Talking About Software Freedom
Those of us who actually want to reform the industry and put users in control of their systems/devices will recognise that "Open Source" was selling a lie or got-co-opted by liars
19 Years in Numbers: Techrights' Anniversary Countdown and Retrospective
In 2019 we began improving our workflows and, accordingly/predictably, we became a lot more productive
Slop Turns People Off (LLMs Lack Intelligence, They're Just Plagiarism Powerhouses That Fail to Deliver Any Real, Measurable Value)
"More" (or "MOAR") isn't always better
IBM Red Hat Has Re-calibrated or Adjusted to Bubble Economics, False Promises, and Slop/Plagiarism
This won't end well
Fake Numbers, Fake Claims, Fake Economy, and Media Grifters That Prop Up Fraud
Grifters like The Register MS won't be looked upon kindly after the bubble implodes
For Some, the GNU Web Site is Not Accessible This Week
They seem to have gone into some kind of lock-down mode
Richard Stallman Back at the "Rudolf-Diesel" Hörsal "MW 2001" in About 40 Hours
He spoke there before; there's a very high seating capacity there
Symptoms of Upcoming Microsoft Layoffs in XBox
A crashing franchise
Psychiatrist confession: Germanwings crash & Debian toxic culture recognized before suicides
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/10/2025: Scentjacking 101, Slop Hype Boosters, and Steam Next Fest
Links for the day
Slopwatch: The Serial Slopper, LinuxSecurity, and Google News
Let's hope slopfarms die as soon as possible
Links 19/10/2025: Cambodia Scam Centres, Slop Hurting Wikipedia Traffic
Links for the day
As Economies Crumble Free as in Beer Will Matter, Not Just Free as in Freedom/Libre (Libertad)
French regions choosing to embrace Software Freedom
25 Years Ago, an Explanation of How Reducing Free Software to 'Apps' Would Interfere With Freedom Goals
there's nothing unreasonable about it
A List of 63 Known Gemini Clients (Software to Browse Geminispace Content With Gemini Protocol)
Not counting browser plugins for Web browsers
Gemini Links 19/10/2025: "Firma Odin Is Transforming" and Bot Attacks While "AFK"
Links for the day
US Government: 6.1% of Site Visitors Use GNU/Linux
GNU/Linux has a considerable share and it is growing
LLM Slop Could Not Rise to Prominence Without Media Complicity and Artificial Hype
Inane garbage disguised as "journalism"
Why the FSF No Longer Recommends Debian, as Explained by Richard Stallman This Month
some weeks ago
All the Latest Half Dozen Articles by Mehedi Hasan (UbuntuPIT) Only Admit at the End That He's Using LLM Slop
Disclosure is OK, but the practice of using slop is not
The 'Modern' Web of Fake Security and Easy Censorship of Whole Domains
Each year it gets worse
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 18, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, October 18, 2025