BACK in early 2015 the EPO's management invoked immunity to avoid having to obey Dutch court orders after it had lost the case over SUEPO's activities and rights, including communications. Does António Campinos finally decide to obey court orders (like he did months late in the case of ILO)? No, not really. "No comment" is his policy. This is the man who shut down comments after he had been rightly criticised for doing something that was likely illegal in the EU. Welcome the real Campinos. It's a Battistelli sans the big mouth, one whose tantrums are reportedly suppressed/discouraged from being reported (but do exist).
"The message is clear; the EPO wants more software patent applications."IPPro Patents has just said that management of the "EPO [is] accused of upholding SUEPO email ban" and we assume that Techrights is still banned in all branches of the EPO not because of falsehoods but due to fear that EPO staff will see refutation of lies (primarily those of EPO management). IPPro Patents did not manage to get the EPO to respond (see final paragraph), nor could SUEPO.
The Staff Union European Patent Office (SUEPO) has accused the office of upholding a blocking system that occludes emails to staff from SUEPO. According to SUEPO, the blocking system was brought in during the reign of the EPO’s immediate past-president, Benoît Battistelli.
During his tenure, Battistelli implemented a number of controversial policies that were vehemently opposed by the staff union.
A recent meeting between SUEPO and the EPO’s new president, António Campinos, on 7 September was seen by the staff union in a positive light, as was a recent meeting between Campinos and the office’s Central Staff Committee (CSC).
The meeting had focused on “normalising the relations between SUEPO and the EPO administration”, according to SUEPO.
SUEPO said that the meeting was “undoubtedly a fist step in the right direction” and hoped to see more steps to achieve “concrete result for EPO staff”.
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private email address on 25 September. This was allegedly met with silence.
The staff union then proceeded to send a PDF file with the contents of the two previous emails to Campinos’s EPO email address from an EPO email address, indicating that the request was still pending.
SUEPO said that to date, this email has also not been answered. A similar request from the CSC following its own meeting from Campinos has been “equally unsuccessful” according to SUEPO.
“We can only conclude that Mr Campinos’s administration is not in favour of lifting the ban on emails to staff from Staff Committee and SUEPO, as imposed by Mr Battistelli and his Associates,” SUEPO added, “this should not come as a surprise”.
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“The fact is that all controversial top managers brought to the EPO by Battistelli—who are responsible for the deteriorated work atmosphere and work quality—are still in charge. Sincerely we are starting to worry for the EPO’s future if it goes on like this.”
The EPO declined to comment on the matter.
The Response: The European Patent Office ("EPO") has recognized the growing need to clarify the rules on how inventions related to, and made by, AI will be handled, and to determine what patent protection exists for this rapidly developing technology. The recently updated EPO Guidelines for Examination, which come into force in November 2018, address only technical issues.