THE EPO is worse than abusive. It's probably, at least at the moment, Europe's most abusive institution (unless someone can point out to us one which is worse). Mr. Battistelli staying inside the EPO means sustained damage to the Office's (and Organisation's) reputation; this translates into brand erosion and jeopardised demand for European Patents (EPs) in the long run, or decreased (perceived) value, even for patents granted over a decade ago. What would happen to people's pensions, inventors' protection, and so on? Examiners are right to be worried. Even the EPO is milking itself dry right now, with untold millions of Euros spent on things which have nothing whatsoever to do with examination (waste of money, corruption). Consider bodyguards, purchased media, secret private contracts with dubious firms for the purpose of PR, union-busting, censorship and surveillance. What on Earth has the EPO become? It's a state within a state, even with its own police and military. Maybe Battistelli took the job title "President" way too far.
"When will Battistelli throw truth-telling staff representatives and judges into the lion's den for his entertainment purposes?"EPO staff protests started about three hours ago in The Hague and in Munich. We wrote about these protests even yesterday. These are justified protests, even if some provocative comments at IP Kat try to discredit the protesters/examiners, portraying them as spoiled millionaires with high-end sport cars (we don't wish to link to these smears). Is that a compromise strategy after trying to just block the whole of IP Kat (this backfired pretty badly)?
A few days ago we said that EBoA can decide whether the illegally-suspended judge will have his case heard openly. We believe he was serious defamed and the Munich State Attorney was reportedly considering criminal charges against the European Patent Office over this. "An announcement of the oral proceedings in Art. 23 1/16 can be found in the public area of the Isar building," said this one comment in IP Kat. One response to this was: "Public? If the accused him or herself is banned from the building?"
That's a good point actually. Medieval/Ottoman notion of 'justice' is prevalent under Battistelli; even worse -- it dates back to the Roman Empire. When will Battistelli throw truth-telling staff representatives and judges into the lion's den for his entertainment purposes? Will he pay "media partners" to broadcast such an event in some Portuguese Colosseum?
"We are entering phase two of the Battistelli strategy to "improve" the EPO," one comment noted, explaining the current situation as follows:
Oh dear. The EPO used to be a "golden cage", where employees were trapped by the generous salary and benefits package. Now the golden bars are apparently not enough, and require steel reinforcement.
I fear that this is a very ominous sign. We are entering phase two of the Battistelli strategy to "improve" the EPO:
1) decapitate the staff representation 2) block all the exits 3) do whatever you want to the staff, because you've got them exactly where you want them, and there's b****r all they can do about it.
"As a reminder (of what we covered here before), Hardon was re-elected to SUEPO leadership, even after Battistelli had fired her, wrongly believing she would be history thereafter."These comments make perfect sense and every single member of the Administrative Council should be made aware of it. Here are the contact details for members of the Administrative Council. It seems rather apparent, as our previous post serves to indicate, that the EPO's staff union (not the yellow one which increasingly acts racist) is still under extreme attacks from Battistelli and his thugs; only the strategy changed a little bit. ⬆