Bonum Certa Men Certa

2018 Starts at the EPO and Both EPC and UPC Are in State of Crisis

European authorities have begun taking the Rule of Law more seriously

Rule of Law: European Commission acts to defend judicial independence in Poland
Reference: Rule of Law: European Commission acts to defend judicial independence in Poland



Summary: The situation at the EPO is becoming worse than untenable and the end of Battistelli's tenure within less than half a year won't be the end of it all

THE EPO reopens this week and scandals are guaranteed to resume shortly. Patrick Corcoran, for example, is now under the control of Battistelli. EPO insiders don't expect that to last very long; it's not an expression of a wish but merely an expectation.



We are meanwhile trying to pursue the famous Baranès letter (he is a former Vice-President, who resigned quickly). We even attempted to ask him directly for a copy. "Whether he'll agree "spit in the soup" remains to be seen," one reader told us. "He's still part of the "system", and there might be possible means of reprisal against him. There's also the question of the strength of his opinions. But he's also reached retirement age, and collecting his pensions."

"Honestly," said another reader, "if I were Battistelli I would book a flight to some remote place, change my name never show up again."

There's belief that expiry of Battistelli's diplomatic immunity will soon doom him.

“Honestly, if I were Battistelli I would book a flight to some remote place, change my name never show up again.”
      --Anonymous
The reader explains that "the situation is becoming each day more surreal: the metastasis within Team Battistelli are fighting each other to further rise the ladder and extend the cancer. For the time being just rumours, but with my little experience of (EPO) life, it has always been the case. It is a very difficult exercise to remain a favourite minion when the king changes."

Things are already heating up again. Aside from internal complaints about the budget of the EPO (noted an hour ago), there's the Patrick Corcoran situation to watch out for. There's now a whole (fairly long) Wikipedia article about it. As one comment put it this week, this can end the UPC ambitions for good:

In this respect, it would be very interesting indeed if a member of the Boards of Appeal were to provide testimony to the BVerfG on the issue of independence ...

Article 22 - Disclosure in legal proceedings (1) A permanent employee shall not, without permission from the President of the Office, disclose, on any grounds whatever, in any legal proceedings, information not already made public of which he has knowledge by reason of his duties. ...


This was one of the pretexts used by Battistelli to go after Corcoran.

Someone going by the name Francesca (may be a real name) then said:

BoA members are NOT permanent employees. Therefore Article 22(1) ServReg does not apply to BoA members... But after this comment, the next "periodical update of the ServRegs" will undoubtedly "update" this article.


Also regarding the EPC, Francesca appeared in this new comment on another blog:

Regarding a diplomatic conference: staff has asked several times for it. The EPC 2000 even inserted a specific article, as at the time of drafting the EPC 2000 the UPC discussions were not closing to an end, and therefore any possibly necessary amendment of the EPC for this was postponed. To discuss these matters, the contracting states decided to meet at at least misterial level at least once each five years to discuss the progress and possible necessary amendments of the EPC.

Furthermore, monsieur Président has been asked by staff during one of his famous “meet the president” happenings, why the AC has not started any preparations for one of these ministerial conferences according to article 4a EPC when the AC asked for proposals regarding the DG3/BoA reforms.

His answer was, that he does not want a diplomatic conference. If politicians would meet, that would be like opening a can of worms: you can set a schedule, but the results will be completely unforseeable.

Also: some 30 years ago, there have been proposals to hire new BoA members only under the condition, that once their technical board has been issued new (or renewed) contracts, their board would move to Berlin. This would’ve resulted in a separation of the BoA from the EPO managements main building within 10 years, thus delivering the increased perception of independence.

The proposal included moving supervisory elements of the EPO (IT development, audit, finances) to Berlin too, and thus over some 20 years stop examination in Berlin.


Yesterday we wrote about the origins/genesis of the EPO. A source of ours spoke of the "triangular exchange," alluding (at the time) to talks of "DG3 to Vienna, Vienna to Berlin, and Berlin to Munich... The more, the merrier." The EPO is primarily a cash cow of Germany and if BVerfG managed to defy the financial agenda/interests, then 2018 promises to be a historic year for the EPO.

Recent Techrights' Posts

New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
 
Noteworthy Claim That IBM is Firing a Lot of Lawyers This Week (RAs in the Legal Department)
A lot of what they do is patent 'trolling' or lawyering up against their own staff (e.g. HR disputes)
Links 10/10/2025: US Judge Bars Attacks by ICE On Journalists and Protesters; “We Took The Freedom of Speech Away” Says the President
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
Google itself is a slop pusher these days
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day
Slopwatch Appreciated by Real Authors of GNU/Linux Articles
We do try to keep on top of those things
Upgraded R.R.R.R.R.R. Today
The Web of 2025 is full of garbage, not limited to slopfarms
Freedom From Proprietary Prisons
Forking always an option
IBM's Watson Died in 1956, Now Watson Dies Again
IBM is becoming just a reseller of GAFAM and other stuff
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Google News
We've also just noticed more slop from UbuntuPIT
Microsoft Says That Constant Mass Layoffs Are Success, the Media Isn't Buying This Microsoft Narrative Anymore
If people in the media feel an obligation to repeat whatever lies Microsoft tells, what point will there be to the media?
Links 08/10/2025: "Mali Puts Free Speech on Trial" And Apple Enforces Dictatorship
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: ‘Death to Spotify’ and Law to Ban Loud Commercials on Streaming (Dis)Services
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Real Innovation and Nina.chat is Dead
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Y2K38 Bug is a Vulnerability, Chat Control in Europe a Threat
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
How and Why Once-Legitimate Sites Turn Into Slopfarms
Many sites will go offline and many social control networks will shut down once they realise or even openly admit they spend money and time gardening a bunch of bots and slop
UbuntuPIT Became a Slopfarm and Gnoppix Tarnishes Its Own Brand With Slop
It fits all the characteristics of mildly-edited (if at all) slop
Slopwatch: Linux Journal and Other Slopfarms
GAFAM needs to go the way of the dodo
Gemini Links 08/10/2025: "Seek Seek Revolution" and Gradient Backgrounds
Links for the day
Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 07, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Stagnation of the Economy and What Free Software Can (or Could) Do For It
If your economic model is based on a pyramid of lies, it won't last very long
Social Control Media is Sinking
it would rightly seem like the era of centralised "social" sites (they're not social, they're about controlling the users) is ending, not overnight but gradually