Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO is Being Destroyed and There's Nothing Left to Replace It Except National Patent Offices

A bonfire of what was supposed to be promising, lifelong careers (justifying relocation of entire families -- children included -- to a foreign country). Where's ILO when one needs it?

International Labour Organization
Reference: International Labour Organization



Summary: It looks like Battistelli is setting up the European Patent Office (EPO) for mass layoffs; in fact, it looks as though he is so certain that the UPC will materialise that he obsesses over "validation" for mass litigation worldwide, departing from a "model office" that used to lead the world in terms of patent quality and workers' welfare/conditions

THE goal of EPO management seems to be the destruction of the EPO and driving away its most valuable assets: the examiners. National Patent Offices (NPOs) are the only fallback (except USPTO and other 'IP5' offices), for the UPC is falling flat on its face and patent applications at the EPO decline in number. In fact, applications impending examination too are running out (maybe will have run out by this year's end).

EPO workers are very smart people. They know what's going on. The impending mass layoffs (possibly the new job of the ex-banker, Campinos) aren't hard to envision.

"EPO wants in a soon future to be able to get rid of staff as it see fit," Anonymous said this afternoon, linking to a new article about a letter which we published yesterday. SUEPO too has cited this article (some time around the afternoon). To quote bits from it:

The latest version of a proposal to scrap permanent employment contracts at the European Patent Office (EPO) for the “modernisation” of its employment framework has come under fire.

According to a letter from the EPO’s Central Staff Committee (CSC), addressed to members and heads of the office’s administrative council, the new version of the framework “does not answer nor address any of the demands and objections of the CSC concerning the previous [version]”.

The original proposal for the removal of permanent employment contracts for all new staff in favour of renewable five-year fixed-term contracts was revealed in November last year.

The change was aimed at the “modernisation of the employment framework of the EPO” and would ensure the office’s “long-term sustainability” and allow for a more “flexible management of the EPO’s workforce”


Put two and two together. It's not hard to see what's happening. I don't want to say it out loud too often, but SUEPO habitually says it anyway... there's plenty of layoffs on the way (e.g. termination of employment contract by virtue of it not being renewed/extended). It's a modus operandi ILO has publications about. Are German politicians OK with that? Are they thoroughly intoxicated by the UPC, which is unconstitutional and not happening anyway? Earlier today SUEPO posted this PDF (in German). Is Bavaria/Germany getting its act together? It might already be too late. The value of European Patents (EPs) is in a freefall. So is the quality of EPs. The EPO just retweets buzzwords such as this one from today (as Battistelli and IAM recently admitted, it is just a mask for software patents and those patents are clearly against the rules and thus likely invalid).

"In 2016 alone," it said, "there were more than 5,000 patent applications for autonomous related inventions!! #Industry40 #IoT #AI" (that's 4 buzzwords for software patents in just one tweet!)

Suffice to say, most "autonomous" things just mean software. I know, having come from that area of research and developed some programs for several domains (autonomous car navigation, medical analysis etc.).

French Connection?



Betting on a French UPC President (Battistelli is alleged to be after this job, which is said to be reserved for a French person)? How about today's EPO puff piece, published in a former French colony with no EPs? From a human rights perspective, Battistelli might fit in just fine over there (see what HRW has just published). When reading this remember that Cambodia has no EPs: "Cambodia will soon become a validation state in the European patent system, allowing the 38 members of the European Patent Organisation to apply to validate their patents within the Kingdom. According to an agreement struck between the EPO and Cambodian Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts last month, EPO members will be able to validate their patents in Cambodia beginning March 1."

Wow. What an accomplishment for Battistelli. Unfortunately for him, his career may be over because having spoken to some IP lawyers, it seems like nothing happened in the UK today. What does Bristows say? Nothing. France already ratified, so obsessing over UPC in relation to France (as Bristows did today, shifting focus away from the UK) is a lousy little decoy. IAM is meanwhile crossposting UPC stuff (pressuring Germany over the complaint) for increased reach because that's where the main question lies. From what we heard today (again, from IP lawyers), some of them now embrace a baseless conspiracy theory that someone is secretly funding the complaint and the complainant. Evidence for that? None. But then again, what can be expected from people who label UPC opponents "idiots" and "trolls"?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Google 'Search' is Fast Becoming No Better Than Social Control Media Infested With Bots
Google emerged almost 30 years ago as a company looking to organise the Web and direct people towards informative pages. That Google is dead.
Before the OSI Was Bribed and Hijacked by Microsoft via GitHub and Compromised Management...
The OSI isn't even remotely "woke"
The OSI Has Been Silent for Over 3 Weeks, It Has a Severe Trust Issue After Promoting Microsoft and Proprietary GitHub
OSI took a lot of money from Microsoft to become a Microsoft lobbyist
Bribery is OK If You Work for Microsoft (No Punishment Expected)
It's very troubling and a symptom of a broken society/system when particular laws or rules are applied and enforced against some people but not against others
Someone Should Remind Microsoft Lunduke That Microsoft Hires Many Sexual Criminals and Pedophiles as Well
Microsoft Lunduke on an "expedition" to find one or more perverts, then generalise to everyone in the "community"
Cash Machines (ATMs) Make Mistakes and They're Proprietary Software
Correcting mistakes is a colossal challenge
Yes, Microsoft is the Problem
"I am no MS shill."
Another Failed Use Case for Chatbots (LLM): Legal Advice and Analysis
They're just some self-discrediting toy that costs way too much to operate
 
Not Owning Mobile Phones
It's not about resistance; it's common sense
PCLinuxOS Had Functional Backups Before the House Fire, the Site Will be Restored in New Webhost
This is the direction we want for GNU/Linux, not some IBM sales strategy
Gemini Links 30/07/2025: Two Sides of Me and "Hooked on Cosmic Voyage"
Links for the day
Microsoft Will Continue Resorting to Crimes in Order to Keep GNU/Linux Usage Down
It is a real problem and we'll revisit it later this week
GAFAM 'Revolving Doors' at The Register and a "Bribe Price List"
"an analyst at Microsoft"
Microsoft Rapidly Shrinking (No, It's Not About Efficiency, It's About Unbearable Debt)
We'll soon see how much debt grew in the past quarter
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 29, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Corruption is the Standard Operating Procedure at the European Patent Office (EPO)
The EPO is a dictatorship that stains Europe
Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) at the European Patent Office (EPO) Requests an Urgent Meeting to Avoid Abolishing the Office
This is dictatorship led by the most corrupt
Slopwatch: Fake 'Linux' 'Articles' and Spamfarms/Slopfarms
at least 5 fake articles in one day
Gemini Links 29/07/2025: Wayland Unfit for Use and LLM Slop Faking One's Language Skills With Robot Communications
Links for the day
Nailing the "Hey Hi" (AI) Hype Bubble
So-called "hey hi" as they define it now is all about large companies or regimes remotely controlling the processes running on your machine and even your very own behaviour on your machine, which is in effect no longer your machine but some remotely controlled apparatus
"Four decades; Four freedoms; For all users" Now as a T-shirt
That's shown along the sidebar
Links 29/07/2025: Bad Climate and "Fair Software Licensing" Blasts Microsoft
Links for the day
Links 29/07/2025: Data Brokers Gone Wrong/Rogue and "Copyright Thicket"
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linuxconfig.org, Linuxsecurity.com, Fagioli, The Register
Today's "Slopwatch" isn't the first article about LLM slop
We Cover Topics Other Sites Are Too Afraid to Cover (Even When They Know the Facts)
It's not that they doubt the truth, they just realise there may be consequences for talking about it
They Try to Tell Us the Free Software Foundation Inc is Dying, But Its Revenue Doubled Since the Dot-Com Bubble Burst
Being in "Activism" is never easy; but it does positive things for society
It's About the Cost of Workers, Not the Fictional Skills Shortage (That Does Not Exist, the Media Spreads False and Sometimes Self-Fulfilling Narratives)
This issue isn't limited to computing, some dub it "globalism"
Links 29/07/2025: More Pushbacks Against Slop and More Praises of Tom Lehrer
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/07/2025: Purple Yarrow and Understanding Op Amps
Links for the day
This Monday WebProNews Absolutely Flooded the Web With Fake (LLM Slop) 'Articles' About "Linux", Google News Promoted Them as Legitimate
All of the following are fake articles attributed to pseudonyms or authors that don't exist; the images are also slop. Why does Google promote these?
Linuxiac is Not a Slopfarm, But at Least Some of Its Articles Are Machine-Generated Fakes
what we said about it was correct
Expect More Microsoft Layoffs
"Are more job cuts coming?"
Microsoft Behaving Like It's Running Out of Money to Pay Salaries
Does that seem like the behaviour expected from a company which claims it is "worth" trillions?
LWN Downtime Due to Linode, Not LLM Bots
"I’ve received an email letting me know that there is a potential for data loss."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 28, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 28, 2025
Nonfree Software in My Bank, by Richard Stallman
Updated 8 hours ago
Links 28/07/2025: Science, Health, and Conflicts
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/07/2025: Healthy Self-Image With Autism and a "New Life"
Links for the day
Links 28/07/2025: COVID-19 Sped up Brain Aging, "Circumvention is More Popular Than Compliance"
Links for the day
Richard Stallman is Usually Right Because He Thinks "Outside the Box"
he is able to observe society (mores and norms) as somewhat of an outsider
LWN Has Been Down for a Long Time, Another Casualty of LLM Bots?
Time will tell. How much time though?
Slopfarms Versus 'Linux' (and Against People Who Write Real Articles About GNU/Linux)
LLM slop in slopfarms by Brian Fagioli and Redazione RHC
Gemini Links 28/07/2025: Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray and Running pkgsrc in a FreeBSD Jail
Links for the day
Microsoft Turns News Sites Into Spamfarms
Is the site The Register MS the next IDG?
The Register MS/The Register US
On Saturday I contacted them for a comment (before issuing criticism)
Hacking revelations at Vatican Jubilee of Digital Missionaries
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 27, 2025