Bonum Certa Men Certa

Benoît Battistelli Should Have Received an Award for Corruption, But He Completely Controlled the Show in His Own Theatre

Battistelli has just 'pulled a Henry Kissinger'

Son of Campinos



Summary: Having abused/misused diplomatic immunity for about 8 years, Benoît Battistelli now passes this immunity to his old friend (António Campinos) and arranges to receive an award in France, for fighting what they call "piracy"

THE king of EPO corruption is about to officially -- at least on paper -- finish his term, but not before he gets some 'royal' treatments in the unfinished Dutch branch. It's pretty incredible what he got away with; like a true king, he's demonstrably above the law and he's never reluctant to break laws which he subjects others to. The USPTO, which is a federally-enshrined institution, operates differently, so staff does not enjoy the same sort of immunity (not even the chiefs).

"We wish to remind our readers that Battistelli's immunity expires in a few weeks with no imminent role (anywhere) to expand this thug's protection from the Rule of Law."Speaking of immunity, remember what happened at EU-IPO. Caricatures like the above were made about it last year (and circulated inside the EPO).

Currently, the EU-IPO is all about António Campinos, who starts his job at the EPO in about 3 weeks, taking over from another Frenchman whom he knew for many years. He made the EU-IPO 'study' all about himself this past week (we've seen him explicitly mentioned in about 50 articles; here's one in English) -- a very Battistelli-like style of personification and self promotion.

We wish to remind our readers that Battistelli's immunity expires in a few weeks with no imminent role (anywhere) to expand this thug's protection from the Rule of Law. As for Campinos, he has enjoyed diplomatic immunity for a number of years and 5 years inside the EPO's management team may mean that it will be impossible to sue him until 2023 (if not much later). Will he exploit such immunity the way Battistelli did? That remains to be seen. Can lawsuits be filed against monsters/mobsters like Battistelli for what he did whilst immune? We're not lawyers (none of us), so we're not sure about the scope and limits of diplomatic immunity; we urge EPO staff (past and present) to investigate this matter and consider action. Battistelli and his thugs were very eager to hire several law firms and legally bully me, knowing that they enjoyed disproportionate legal power because they're resistant to prosecution and probably to subpoenas too.

"Battistelli and his thugs were very eager to hire several law firms and legally bully me, knowing that they enjoyed disproportionate legal power because they're resistant to prosecution and probably to subpoenas too."Battistelli won't leave the Office without insulting everything and everyone associated with the Office. He already tarnishes any remnant of reputation, falsely believing that hiring not one but several PR agencies (external to the EPO itself) will help compensate for it. We've quietly and patiently observed puff pieces from "media partners" (as usual) and press releases over the past few days. We would rather not link to these but only point out that the EPO works again (just like last year) with Shepard Fox Communications. From one of the press releases (trying to appeal to the cause of feminism, emphasising an ethical aspect, at least a perceived one after that "diversity" ploy celebrated a day beforehand) we have extracted the role of Shepard Fox Communications, but from another press release we extract the following again:

UK media contact: Barbara Geier echolot pr Tel: 0044 (0)7983 242 195 barbara@bconnects.net


We have mentioned her before [1, 2]; they're literally writing some of the 'articles' (their name remains in the metadata).

Now, on to the event -- the one that the EPO wastes a fortune on (European Inventor Award). It's all about the 'king', who is presenting the show in his own theatre that he's responsible for! From the EPO's official account: "President Battistelli: “We are here to celebrate these inventors and I would like you to consider that all our nominees deserve our congratulations and out thanks” [...] We wouldn’t have been able to produce this shortlist of impressive nominees without our international jury, says President Battistelli. [...] President Battistelli officially opens the Ceremony: “I would like to offer you a very warm welcome to the European Inventor Award 2018”..."

So the star of the show is -- as usual -- the 'king' himself.

"...they're [PR firms] literally writing some of the 'articles' (their name remains in the metadata)."Here's what the EPO wrote at the end (warning: epo.org link), after about 60 (re/)tweets that day. Yes, this charade of Battistelli is all about Battistelli himself. He pays not a dime for it (not his own anyway) and gains financially from it, as do his colleagues in France. We prefer not to heckle scientists who were there, e.g. to accept prizes (they're not part of the abuse and some may not even be aware of how they're being used for a money-passing 'cover'). We prefer not to name them or give 'free' publicity to this terrible festival, which Battistelli celebrates for his own personal interests.

Call it laughable or call it outrageous, but crooked Battistelli is 'giving' a bogus award to himself on the same day that he loots the EPO (the 'crime'). We believe that crooks like him and Sarkozy would get away with murder, albeit what happens after he loses his immunity remains to be seen (Sarkozy got arrested some months ago, well after he was leader of France). The award of Battistelli was "presented to him in Paris," according to the EPO (warning: epo.org link). It looks like a prearranged and staged ceremony, wherein "Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group" (we never heard of it before!) was trying to frame a likely criminal as an anti-crime person. It's like that Nobel peace prize granted to Henry Kissinger. It took decades for the Nobel 'franchise' to recover from that (if it ever recovered at all). Battistelli is trying to legitimise himself while he's engaging in serious corruption in the theatre which he manages. Yes, published "7 June 2018" (same day as European Inventor Award) and also in France:

The Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group (GACG) today honoured EPO President Benoît Battistelli with a special award for his services to intellectual property. The 2018 prize in the individual achievement category was presented to him in Paris on the occasion of an Awards ceremony celebrating the World Anti-Counterfeiting Day- which recognises national and international efforts to curb counterfeiting and piracy.


"Marking their 20th year, the GACG Awards were held at the Museé de Contrefaçon, housed at the Headquarters of the Union des Fabricants (UNIFAB)," it says. So they didn't even exist until the late nineties and we never ever heard of them before. Sounds dodgy or what?

"Even the Oscars don't reach these levels of corruption," I told this person, who laughably enough wrote (to soon be retweeted by the EPO):

European Inventor Award 2018 - think the Oscars for Patents - EPO put on an incredible program. Block out your calendar for this in 2019. @aipla @EPOorg #inventoraward pic.twitter.com/OiK9TnSrAt


Oscars?!

Got to be joking! It's not even remotely comparable. The Oscars are watched by hundreds of millions worldwide. How many people tuned in for European Inventor Award? Several thousands on a live feed?

"...this scheme will soon be managed by a former banker, whose employer (the bank) is notorious for corruption. How's that for EPO hope or optimism?"What the European Inventor Awards are nowadays stigmatised for (past and present) is fraud, scams, and corruption. This is Battistelli's legacy. He kept placing them in France, in spite of the long tradition of hosting in the EU Presidency's nation, and he ended up landing the event in the theatre that he's managing.

Märpel has just brought up the word "corruption" in relation to the lack of accountability at the EPO. To quote:

After the last article, some people approached Märpel with questions. The word "corruption" was used.

Märpel would like to point out that she did not use that word.

Let us just say that there are many ways to win people to one's cause but that it is always much easier when they believe that your cause is also theirs. Mr. Petrović was always convinced that this cause was just.

[...]

Märpel believes that this is exactly what happened at the EPO. President Battistelli saw the opportunity to seize power and turned the organisation to a ghost of its former self: it does not fulfil its mission of examining patents any more, it is haemorrhaging staff, its financial assets have been seized by what could be a Ponzi scheme (over 2 billions Euros). All what was needed was complacency from the judiciary.


What Märpel refers to as "Ponzi scheme" was recently covered by Märpel. Well, this scheme will soon be managed by a former banker, whose employer (the bank) is notorious for corruption. How's that for EPO hope or optimism?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft: Work Weekends Too
Microsoft literally working its workers to death
Stallman Has Explained Slop is "Marketing Hype Campaign" and Torvalds Agreed. The Difference is the Bribes.
So be like Stallman
SLAPP Censorship - Part 167 Out of 200: The Court of Appeal Might be the Next Step
Today is our last vacation day
 
PIP Layoffs at Microsoft, Even in India
Microsoft is trying to hide the true scale of the layoffs
Layoff Trackers Are a Sham, They're Like US 'Unemployment Data'
Layoff trackers are similarly misleading as they only measure what companies openly admit and register with WARN notices
The Peculiar Case of OSNews, Which Experiments With Slopfarming
It wasn't published in error. It has been there for two months.
Russian Federation is Removing Windows From Computers
Windows is going "out of fashion"
XBox CEO Has No Clue What She is Selling
Some people believe Microsoft will parcel and offload the whole "gaming" unit to some other companies
analognowhere.com and xkcd.com Selling Physical Copies of Webcomics
That's one way to support their work
PIP/GVSA at Microsoft: Mass Layoffs Disguised as Something Else
Microsoft is trying to cheapen the workforce because the numbers don't add up
Microsoft Lunduke Uses Twitter ("X") Because It's Algorithmically Designed to Boost His Worldview/s, He Ignores What "X" Is
Maybe all those people really deserve one another
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 31, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, August 31, 2026
Censorship by Threats
It should be noted that the Web site of Richard Stallman will soon enter its third day of downtime
In Romania, GNU/Linux Reaches 6%, According to Clownflare
Tomorrow we'll see the latest data from statCounter (for September)
Gemini Links 01/09/2026: Denali Park Train Trip, Crafts, and Community-Building in smol.pub
Links for the day
Microsoft Workers Doing 80 Hours a Week After Microsoft Culled Their Colleagues
there are days when they work 17 hours a day (barely any time left to sleep and eat) and work starts at 5AM
IBM Defrauds Shareholders With Fake News (Bribed Press) About "Quantum"
That says a lot about the state of "Tech Giants" and also the utterly shameless state of the media
Record Highs for GNU/Linux, Especially in the United States of America
the "market share" of GNU/Linux is about 9%, still about a third of what Vista 11 stands at
PIPocalypse at IBM
Silent layoffs
Spending Over a Million Bucks on Lawsuits Abroad When There's a Big Mortgage to Pay in America
Priorities, priorities...
Gemini Links 31/08/2026: Announcing ROOPHLOCH 2026, smol.pub Discussion, and LLM Plagiarism Engines Target Geminispace
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's GNU Turns 43 in 4 Weeks, FSF Growing
In a few weeks GNU turns 43
IBM's Cuts Are Worsening Security in GNU/Linux
IBM is still run by the same idiot who proposed taking over Red Hat
Links 31/08/2026: Anthropic Sued Again for Copyright Infringement of Massive Scale, 'Tokenmaxxing' Shows Slop is a Worthless Liability
Links for the day
Links 31/08/2026: "Teslas Are Still Driving Into Oncoming Freight Trains" and "LLM Moats Quickly Evaporating"
Links for the day
Debian Project Discards About 25% of the Votes on LLM Slop, Microsoft Votes in the General Resolution (GR)
"[t]he rules of the vote saw community members asked to rank each of the eight proposals. Just under 600 people voted, but Debian’s election team rejected many for unspecified reasons, leaving almost 450 valid votes to count."
Essentiality of Rest and Killing Oneself for Vicious Companies
Working for Microsoft is foolish
In the UK, Bing (Microsoft) Down to Lowest Level Since January
our tax money being passed to Microsoft via MoUs (back door deals with kickbacks)
German Government Sponsors IBM Because of GNU/Linux
Flatpak is sponsored by, run, and controlled by IBM
Richard Stallman Speaks to Christine Hall of FOSS Force, stallman.org is Down for Over a Day
interview does a good job addressing the hype about LLMs too
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 30, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, August 30, 2026
Gemini Links 31/08/2026: Holidays, Stream of Consciousness, and Posting Online
Links for the day
Anniversaries Next Month
The month should be otherwise quiet and uneventful for us
Coding is Not Obsolete
we drown ourselves in chaff to meet "LOC" objectives while ignoring everything else
Microsoft Layoffs Perpetual But Silent, People Pushed Out Using Pressure or Incentive Schemes
Earlier this month we named some of the programs
Links 30/08/2026: Apple Rant and LLM (Slop) Scrapers Target Gemini Protocol and Gopher
Links for the day
Salaries Are Counted in Money, Not in Participation in the Employer's Scheme
articles greatly exaggerating GAFAM salaries
Walls in Free Software
mind your own business and move on
Even Linux Cannot Cope With Slop
Bots on the Web are truly obnoxious
What a Summer!
Tomorrow is the last day of this month
Links 30/08/2026: Soldiers in Niger Attack Presidential Palace and Airport, Nepali City Struggles to Handle the Many Dead Bodies
Links for the day
Clownflare Sees GNU/Linux Rising to 11% This Past Week
Is it the year of "Linux in China"?
Links 30/08/2026: Russian Strike on a Ukrainian Warehouse and Rhetoric Escalations
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/08/2026: Photography, Paper Books, Linux Kernel and the Debian Projects Permitting Slop Plagiarism
Links for the day
Imagine a World Where Nobody Fights for Software (and Computing) Freedom
The community keeps fighting back, so some of these ambitions are delayed or watered down
FSF Has Grown (More Staff) After a Year of Financial Growth
On October 4 the FSF turns 41
GNU/Linux Has Become More Mainstream in the United Kingdom
It's a long weekend here and we guess some people dabble in GNU/Linux migrations, at least at home
SLAPP Censorship - Part 166 Out of 200: Garrett Wasn't Found Innocent Per Se, the Court Wanted More Evidence of Who Was Behind Particular Accounts Using Tor
It's complicated
Criminals Don't Obey Laws, California Does Not Enhance Online Safety
It has been a while since we last mentioned so-called 'age-verification' laws
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 29, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, August 29, 2026