05.01.17
Insensitivity at the EPO’s Management – Part X: When EPO Calls the Truth “Defamation”
A lot of what Battistelli does these days mirrors Erdoğan’s political strategy
Summary: The inability to speak truth about the EPO has become a monumental impediment to justice, as true justice requires facts and the Office under Battistelli likes to call factual information “defamation”
IN the previous part we explained the degree to which the EPO‘s management scares the staff — to the point where many staff representatives feel too terrified to represent the staff’s interests. SUEPO has been quiet recently not because things are improving; the opposite is true and thus they’re scared to speak out. Battistelli 'pacifies' the Office in the same way Erdoğan 'pacifies' Turkey. It’s a regime of terror.
“SUEPO has been quiet recently not because things are improving; the opposite is true and thus they’re scared to speak out.”As explained in previous parts, Battistelli’s regime has gone as far as exploiting personal tragedies. In the words of a source, the “EPO exploited my personal situation and my mother’s cancer to harass and vexate me further…”
Can people speak out about this abuse? Well, in any ordinary institution it would make sense, but not at the EPO because — as our source put it — EPO management “could still jump to the conclusion that I “accused EPO of harassment without evidence, hence defaming them”.”
“Battistelli ‘pacifies’ the Office in the same way Erdoğan ‘pacifies’ Turkey. It’s a regime of terror.”We recently saw how two Vice-President pulled such stunts against staff representatives who had said the truth about patent quality. Truth cannot be spoken at the EPO anymore. It’s like Erdoğan’s Turkey.
The very notion or the strategy of calling truth “defamation” (the EPO used this to justify complete censorship of Techrights) makes one wonder if Wikipedia, The Register, Juve and so on are next in the “ban list”. IP Kat previously made it into this list and then it stopped covering EPO scandals.
“The Office is driving into a wall, but nobody is allowed to speak about it, except perhaps anonymously (as it makes retribution a lot harder).”“I know they will be after me for this,” a source once told us, “but they already are using any pretext to harm me, so I cannot see now how they could use this to accuse me of defamation, or of disclosing internal information without permission.”
These words serve to highlight the sort of atmosphere which spreads and prevails at the EPO. The Office is driving into a wall, but nobody is allowed to speak about it, except perhaps anonymously (as it makes retribution a lot harder). █
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