What next? A private bulletproof limousine for Sun King?

Summary: Battistelli is wasting huge amounts of money at the European Patent Office (EPO) because of his manic state of mind and more people start talking about it

Battistelli's bodyguards obsession and paranoia is nothing new. This guy's ego is bigger than even the whole of Bavaria and he sees conspiracies in everything around him. A king in his own mind, Battistelli exhibits many of the symptoms of megalomania and this megalomania costs the EPO (or taxpayers, or applicants) a great deal of money.

"This guy's ego is bigger than even the whole of Bavaria and he sees conspiracies in everything around him."Merpel has just published this new post about EPO affairs; a lot of it repeats or revisits information that is weeks or months old, but there are some new (to us) bits of information. Here is the last paragraph, which is most eye-catching:

In the meantime, reports of the contracts recently signed by the EPO refer to 6 contracts with 6 individuals to provide "Close Protection" because of "increased security requirements", at a reported cost of €550,000 for 6 months. Merpel is astonished that senior EPO management are considered to be in need of such protection.

As one person points out: "Regarding 'close protection', the President himself related the problem of being a Frenchman in a significant position as head of an international organisation - this comment came after the various recent terrorist activities withinFrance (and Belgium). I wouldn't assume that it relates to any internal matters."

Another person says: "I am still astonished that the UPC is to be built on the foundations of the EPC, when the EPC requires reform to ensure independence of judiciary and executive."

Well, we wrote about it earlier this evening (far too much EPO propaganda regarding the UPC these days, as agenda is more important than truth). We humbly hope that EPO examiners will join our fight against this antidemocratic effort to punish nearly everyone inside the EPO for the sake of corporations from across the Atlantic. This is neoliberalism at work.

"We humbly hope that EPO examiners will join our fight against this antidemocratic effort to punish nearly everyone inside the EPO for the sake of corporations from across the Atlantic."As a side note, in relation to this older article from IP Kat, one reader told us: "That€´s what appeared on IPkat. However, there€´s much more to it. Several directors informed the examiners that Batistelli€´s new initiative, Early certainty from search, is budgeted for a loss. A loss that may be as high as 400 million EUR!"

"I can€´t provide more information now," the reader said, "but maybe you could ask a question about this. I€´m sure that other EPO staff could contribute."

Having already received some valuable leaks we hope that someone will get in touch and provide information about this. ⬆