02.26.17
The EPO’s Race to the Bottom in Recruitment and Early Retirements Explained by an Insider
Maybe Breitbart has something to offer at the EPO?
Summary: The European Patent Office under Battistelli is failing to attract — and certainly failing to retain — talented examiners
A few days ago we wrote about brain drain at the EPO (rebutting claims to the contrary), having already written a lot about the subject numerous times over the years, e.g. in:
- Puff Pieces of the EPO-IPO (EPO+EUIPO) Have Begun to Appear Amid New Evidence of Brain Drain, Lowered Standards
- EPO Brain Drain Goes All the Way to the Top as Head of Patent Administration Abruptly Resigns
- Administrative Council of the EPO Must Recognise Critical Brain Drain, Loss of Talent, Loss of Patent Quality
- Growingly Desperate for Applicants Amid Brain Drain, EPO Pays Breitbart ‘News’
One of our readers decided to weigh in, as he or she did:
About brain drain: of course there is a brain drain! The office was a place where you would start with little professional experience and remain until retirement, at 65. But these were the conditions 20 years ago. Now staff recruited at that time reach the 50 years limit and can leave on pension. I know many at ages between 50 and 60 therefore leaving under “early retirement conditions”. Of course with smaller benefits than retiring with 65, but is money everything? Certainly, not. 15 years of freedom are something valuable. And there are still chances that you can use your professional knowledge somewhere else. Your life is at stake here. What is the value of money if you wake up every morning with the feeling of being trapped in a golden cage or asking yourself if suicide wouldn’t be the best solution?
Unhappiness at the EPO — a subject we shall continue to focus on — has made the EPO a poisonous place to work in. It’s a bad employer to work for. Understandably, fewer people would even bother applying. █
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