06.22.17
Posted in Europe, Patents at 11:45 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: FFPE candidates (or moles from the yellow union [1-16]) failed to enter the Central Staff Committee in spite of Battistelli’s attempt to help them get in
WHILE we are waiting for the results of a strike ballot we can say that another ballot had Battistelli astoundingly defeated. It’s a humiliating defeat given that Battistelli tried hard to rig the rules.
As a source put it, “EPO staff successfully elected a new staff representation on Tuesday. Battistelli had tried to foster the election of at least one FFPE candidate into the Central Staff Committee by re-designing the election rules. But none of the two FFPE candidates reached the necessary number of votes. This is a defeat for the president and a victory for the staff. To my knowledge, all 10 elected candidates are SUEPO members, but only about half of them are SUEPO Committee members.”
“It’s a humiliating defeat given that Battistelli tried hard to rig the rules.”We knew about these elections and alluded to them earlier this week.
For those who wonder about the meaning of the above cartoon, the original theme stems from May 1968 and showed Charles de Gaulle as a police officer, playing with France, as if it was a ball, but ready to reign it through brutality after elections of the French Parliament. The text means “Feel free to vote. I’ll do the rest.” █
References:
- In the EPO’s Official Photo Op, “Only One of the Faces is Actually FFPE-EPO”
- Further Evidence Suggests and Shows Stronger Evidence That Team Battistelli Uses FFPE-EPO as ‘Yellow Union’ Against SUEPO
- “FFPE-EPO Was Set up About 9 Years Ago With Management Encouragement”
- Fallout of the FFPE EPO MoU With Battistelli’s Circle
- The EPO’s Media Strategy at Work: Union Feuds and Group Fracturing
- Caricature of the Day: Recognising FFPE EPO
- Union Syndicale Federale Slams FFPE-EPO for Helping Abusive EPO Management by Signing a Malicious, Divisive Document
- FFPE-EPO Says MoU With Battistelli Will “Defend Employment Conditions” (Updated)
- Their Masters’ Voice (Who Block Techrights): FFPE-EPO Openly Discourages Members From Reading Techrights
- Letter Says EPO MoU “Raises Questions About FFPE’s Credibility as a Federation of Genuine Staff Unions”
- On Day of Strike FFPE-EPO Reaffirms Status as Yellow (Fake/Management-Leaning) Union, Receives ‘Gifts’
- Needed Urgently: Information About the Secret Meeting of Board 28 and Battistelli’s Yellow Union, FFPE-EPO
- In Battistelli’s Mini Union (Minion) It Takes Less Than 10 Votes to ‘Win’ an Election
- FFPE-EPO Going Ad Hominem Against FICSA, Brings Nationality Into It
- High on EPO: Battistelli’s ‘Social Conference’ Nonsense is Intended to Help Suppress Debate About His Abuses Against Staff and Union-Busting Activities
- Leaked Letter Reveals How Battistelli Still Exploits FFPE-EPO (Yellow Union) to Attack the Real EPO Union, SUEPO
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Posted in America, Patents at 4:42 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Our plan of returning to coverage of US patent affairs in the wake of powerful lobbies that pursue patent maximalism
TO our regret — but not to our surprise — there are increasingly dangerous development with the potential to undo a lot of positive progress at the USPTO. We have some upcoming news/analysis about the departure of Michelle Lee, the role played by David Kappos as a lobbyist along with AIPLA, and so much more (perhaps about 20 articles, some of them pretty long). We have been drafting these articles for quite a while, but did not find time to finalise these (maybe this weekend, hopefully).
“Microsoft’s patent trolls, moreover, get another cash infusion from Microsoft/Bill Gates.”Our focus on EPO seemed a lot more important, but right now we find that Trump the “Swamp” is moving fast(er), causing destruction to all sorts of older policies (see [1,2] from the news below).
Microsoft’s patent trolls, moreover, get another cash infusion from Microsoft/Bill Gates. It’s not limited to Intellectual Ventures and it poses a real threat to GNU/Linux.
It seems to be getting more urgent/important for Techrights to return to covering software patents, preferably before the meeting of the Administrative Council (when volume of EPO coverage grows two- or three-fold). █
Related/contextual items from the news:
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While Congress is still doing its thing to try to make the US healthcare system an even bigger laughingstock around the world, the White House is apparently considering an executive order targeting high drug prices. Of course, it handed this power over to Joe Grogan, a (very recent) former lobbyist for a giant pharma company, Gilead, that has been at the center of some controversy over its highly priced drugs. Grogan is apparently leading this effort despite not having an ethics waiver, which means he’s supposed to recuse himself from these discussions, rather than lead them. But, you know, that’s not happening in the swampy, swampy waters of Washington DC. So just what would Grogan suggest as a way to lower drug prices? How about extending pharmaceutical patents? Yes. Extending.
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The STRONGER Patent Act would reform the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and address “the continual weakening of patent rights by the courts”, according to sponsors Senators Coons, Cotton, Durbin and Hirono
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Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 4:23 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
The long-sought reality distortion field is severely rattled
Dr. Ingve Björn Stjerna’s paper on the entryism that helped advance UPC close to ratification
Summary: The tactics of Team UPC turn ugly as they personally target anyone who stands in their way, even a professor/judge who is courageous enough to state the obvious
THE tactics used by Team UPC and the EPO have become uglier. When they don’t simply ignore news which they deem inconvenient they attack those whom they don’t agree with and disseminate lies instead.
Team UPC is actually too polite a term; they deserve a label like the “UPC cult” because this is how they behave; they also eliminate/crush/delete opposing views. This week we are seeing gently-worded personal attacks or attempts to discredit Professor Siegfried Broß for saying the truth about the UPC. It’s stuff like this which reminds us why the UPC complaint was done anonymously. We can envision the sorts of nasty personal attacks which would ensue if the petitioner’s/s’ name/s became widely known and circulated in the German media.
Thankfully, some parts of Team UPC are giving up on the ‘party line’; We at Techrights genuinely think (based on informed analysis) that UPC would very bad for development of software in Europe. British businesses agree, but their collective voice often gets hijacked by a bunch of lawyers who pretend to represent them or their interests. The UPCA was designed by lawyers, it intends to actually harm the industry, and basically enrich these lawyers and their richest clients, which are often not European at all.
IAM ‘magazine’, which earlier this year spread fake news about Spain (repeatedly in fact, in spite of being constantly debunked), had organised pro-UPC events supported by the EPO and funded by the EPO’s PR firm. A change of tune is afoot, however, as this tweet and article from today say that “UPC will not get started in 2017 and don’t bet too much on it happening in 2018 either” (or ever!)
To quote:
It’s been a big political week in the UK. On Monday, David Davis, the government minister overseeing the Brexit process, finally had his first formal meeting with Michel Barnier, the chief negotiator for the EU27, so beginning the discussions around the country’s departure from the European Union. Then, yesterday, Parliament was opened by the Queen following the inconclusive 8th June election which saw the ruling Conservative government unexpectedly lose its overall majority and, therefore, the ability to control the narrative around Brexit and other legislative issues. With the clock ticking down to 29th March 2019 – the date when the UK is scheduled to stop being an EU member state – the country has an emasculated leader and no detailed Brexit strategy. It’s a mess.
Although the dysfunctionality at the heart of the UK political system and the trauma of the divorce from the EU is largely an issue for us Brits, it does have implications for any IP owners that hold assets here or might wish to do so in the future. There are now under two years until Brexit occurs and all the uncertainties around IP that existed on the day after Leave won the referendum continue to exist today – with no sign yet of them being solved. This has major implications for enforcement and for validity of rights granted by the EU IP Office, as well as those that will be granted over the course of the next 20 months.
Dr. Birgit Clark, a former ‘Kat’ whom we found reliable (thus far), has meanwhile taken note of a misleading Battistelli puff piece where his lies to the audience got amplified.
Quite rightly, she tagged it #believeitwhenIseeit and in response to this, Dr. Luke McDonagh wrote: “Major errors in this piece: in fact German ratification awaits a constitutional challenge + Italy&Netherlands both want UK’s #UPC division”
Obviously it was some kind of fake news and Battistelli had lied to a large audience of scientists.
Look what level the EPO has sunk to…
One comment at IP Kat, left earlier today, took note of the “Interview of Pr Bross in Juve.de on UPC hence Karlsruhe” — an interview to which Wouter Pors from Team UPC (he remains one of the chief propagandists for Unitary Patent) responded in another comment by shooting the messenger. Here is his comment:
To my understanding, the complaint relating to the ratification of the UPC Agreement is not based on arguments relating to the EPO Boards of Appeal. This means that the remarks of Prof. Bross with regard to the EPO issues are not relevant for this appeal. Further, I completely fail to see how issues with the EPO Boards of Appeal could affect the UPC, which does meet all the standards for an impartial and independent court.
On the other hand, if issues with regard to the EPO, which are brought forward in other complaints to the German Constitutional Court, would be relevant, that would relate to all European patents that cover Germany, not only to Unitary Patents. But still they would not relate to the UPC.
As the IPKat mentions and I have also understood, prof. Bross is involved in such actions on behalf of an applicant.
Wouter Pors
Bird & Bird The Hague
Pors was not alone in attacking the messenger. There was “damage control” from the other “deplorables” of UPCA, notably Christopher Weber and his employer. Earlier on he wrote about “Our report and commentary on @juveVerlag_MK’s interview with former constitutional judge Broß on the complaint against the #UPC…”
They actually issued a whole post in their official Web site in response to an article. How pathetic is that? Team UPC is currently very afraid of Broß and Mr. Weber wages a battle for his employer (with stakes in the UPC). He also wrote this tweet linking to his employer. They probably try to appease impatient clients to whom the firm gave bad advice regarding the UPC.
Also in Germany we now see this law firm pretending that it’s all just “Postponed”, even though there is no certainty about the UPC at all. Anywhere! The concluding part states:
According to reports published on 11 June 2017, the German Federal Constitutional Court has requested the Federal President of Germany to refrain from signing the law that is necessary to ratify the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court (UPC). The president has agreed to comply with this request. The president’s signing is the last step required for a law to come into force after it has already passed both legislative chambers in Germany.
At 1:30AM? With just 5% of the politicians present? The whole process has been full of mischief and foul play, nefarious tricks, and one might say political corruption. Now they pay the price for what they wrongly assumed nobody would notice. █
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 3:36 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Reference: Factory alleged to have ignored warnings
Summary: The bigger or much broader picture detailing the high cost of autocracy and mental torture at the EPO, where lives are ruined not only when these are ended and some key buildings pose severe threat to a lot of workers
THE suicide count at the EPO isn’t the most important measure of Battistelli’s negative impact; as pointed out, using some older studies, many people's family life was negatively affected by Battistelli's regime. A career at the EPO is very detrimental to people’s health, morale, self worth, marriage, future career and so on.
“A career at the EPO is very detrimental to people’s health, morale, self worth, marriage, future career and so on.”With a pensions clawback, moreover, as well as the (mis)treatment of some staff as “invalid”, the latest suicide does not tell the full story. Insiders are not counting those who left or were pushed out, whereupon they became suicidal (and some of them did, in fact, commit suicide).
Earlier today we found this new comment which stated, “actually under Battistelli it is suicide nr 6 not nr 5. Only independent enquiries by competent local authorities could clear up the doubts about the impact of the working conditions on the dramatic act. [T]hese are of course systematically refused, EPO abusively hiding behind its immunity.”
“We are also aware of mental breakdowns, depressions, and truly heartbreaking stories of people whose life was ruined by the regime of Battistelli.”But the real number is more than 6. We don’t wish to go into the specifics, but by some criteria the number can be put at around 10. We are also aware of mental breakdowns, depressions, and truly heartbreaking stories of people whose life was ruined by the regime of Battistelli. Entire families were impacted by this.
The bottom line is, the human toll of Team Battistelli is more than half a dozen people (whose reasons for suicide may differ). There are thousands of people who suffer from Battistelli and many of them, at least hundreds, have had their life (not just lifestyle) ruined by him. Battistelli is also toxic to EPO stakeholders (outside the EPO) and is detrimental to Europe’s economic interests.
“There are thousands of people who suffer from Battistelli and many of them, at least hundreds, have had their life (not just lifestyle) ruined by him.”It’s truly a miracle — if not a cautionary tale — that owing to immunity such a destructive individual maintains his position and moreover misuses it to enrich himself, enrich his friends, and almost literally buy puff pieces about himself (at the expense of Office budget, of course), not to mention gag/muzzle those same publishers whom he pays.
In the midst of Battistelli’s sheer abuses we now see burned contractors whose budget is secretly diverted into Battistelli's personal project (his very own penthouse) and buildings that are allocated to ordinary EPO staff are fire hazards, akin to what was seen in Grenfell Tower earlier this month. We would like to remind readers of the following three articles of ours:
“Earlier today people voted on a strike and we’ll know the outcome on the vote soon.”Think of the human casualties such a tragedy would have at the EPO. Battistelli’s “scorched Earth” approach to the EPO (burning down the Office metaphorically) can one day become literal. Earlier today people voted on a strike and we’ll know the outcome on the vote soon. █
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