Bonum Certa Men Certa

Nobody Was Ever Punished for Bullying Laurent Prunier (Bergot and Others Kept Their EPO Jobs and They Continue to Oppress and Silence Staff Representatives)

Ever wondered why so little is reported in the media? Look at internal documents, only to find there's a suppression campaign worse and more draconian than Battistelli's.

Laurent Prunier (EPO) talking about the scandal at the EPO with Suzette Saint-Marc (Council of Europe)
EPO 'soft power' is killing people 'softly'



Summary: Europe's most autocratic institution, the EPO, is still muzzling its staff; Mr. Prunier (above) may have reached a settlement after years of unjust suffering, but that settlement does not correct or serve to eliminate the broader pattern, which prevents staff from reporting corruption and other serious abuses

THE Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) is a lot more competent -- professionally speaking -- than EPO management. The former are scientists, the latter is just a bunch of buddies who loot the organisation and don't even know how to run it. Few of them even understand patents. They just look at the EPO as little but a financial instrument through which to enrich themselves and give themselves an ego boost.



IsolationBack in May we wrote about the settlement with Laurent Prunier (later we'd bemoan lack of media coverage about this). Others had beaten us to it and SUEPO circulated a number of publications/updates. "The ordeal is finally over," it said, but so was Mr. Prunier's EPO career. After what he had gone through he no longer wanted to be at the Office. And seeing how bad things still are at the Office, who can blame him? This isn't the patent office he originally joined. Not anymore...

Now, 6 months down the line, we'd like to put in the public record documents related to this settlement. We wrote about Mr. Prunier more than half a dozen times. Benoît Battistelli smeared him in IAM and elsewhere, so Mr. Prunier is quite courageous, taking on this "Mafia" and the Mafia's media partners (which is what IAM is).

First of all, here is the announcement from SUEPO:

28 April 2020 su20021cp

Dear SUEPO Members, Dear colleagues,

As you remember, numerous union officials and staff representatives were harshly targeted under Mr Battistelli’s tenure. Following the mandate received from the Administrative Council, Mr Campinos has taken steps to provide relief to these colleagues.

The latest in the series is Laurent Prunier, former Secretary of SUEPO The Hague and elected member of the Central Staff Committee, who was dismissed in 2016. He has just informed us that an amicable settlement was finally reached with the Office. We are not privy to the settlement details, since strict confidentiality regulates it.

Laurent wholeheartedly thanks all of you who supported him. Without your solidarity, he would never have been able to keep afloat. You can now stop your donations.

The ordeal, which has lasted more than 3 years, has severely impacted Laurent’s life and health. In light of this impact, and in spite of having been a truly committed and valuable EPO colleague, Laurent chose not to return to the Office to be able to properly recover. We sincerely hope he will be able to heal his trauma and rebuild a new future. We wish him the very best.

We take this opportunity to recall that two former Staff Committee experts remain abusively sanctioned: Aurélien Pétiaud in Munich and Michael Lund (now on pension) in The Hague. We hope that the President will finally provide relief to them, too. An amnesty is, as Dr Bausch reminded the IP community in one of his blogposts on Kluwer Patent Blog1, well within his discretionary power.

SUEPO CENTRAL

________ 1 Es gibt nichts Gutes. Außer man tut es


"Regrettably," SUEPO added (alluding to the likes of Bergot), "the managers that were instrumental in this witch hunt are still working at the EPO - unpunished and continuing as if nothing ever happened. The President will need to undertake several more actions if he ever wants to start to restore trust in the administration, and taking a careful look at his advisers - still the same team as under Battistelli’s tenure - is an urgently needed first step."

The settlement documents (original) are all in German, but Mr. Prunier issued the following letter in English.

Laurent Prunier letter



"Laurent’s ordeal, which has lasted for more than 3 years, is over," SUEPO wrote. But health isn't coming back; those take a great toll on one's mental and physical health, so recovery can only ever be partial. I've known people to whom such things happened; the chilling, strong impact of the experience or the shock has a long-lasting cost. Nobody was ever punished for all the unwarranted bollocking against Laurent and his colleagues. Nobody.

Recent Techrights' Posts

LLMs as Attack Method Against Free Software and Programming
DDoS in "hey hi" (slop) clothing
Google as a 'Bullshit Generator' Disguised as Intelligence
It'll probably cause Google to get sued a lot, both by individuals and companies
As Expected, Google in the UK Now Experiments With Slop Instead of Web Search
At this point more people ought to stop and think: Does Google's search engine deserve trust?
Sabotaging Linux on Behalf of Microsoft With UEFI 'Secure' Boot (De Facto Remote 'Kill Switch'), Then Defaming, Stalking and Harassing Critics of 'Secure' Boot for 12 Years, Then SLAPPing Their Spouses and Them
The sorts of stubborn lunatics we've been dealing with
 
Meeting (Webchat) With Maria Arranz Gomez, Florian Grundies, Jürgen Janda and Konstantinos Kortsaris Confronts EPO Management About Breaking Promises and Crushing Workers
The lack of consistent messages suggests plans other than what's advertised and the lack of consultation (secrecy) likewise
Links 01/08/2025: "The Great British Firewall" and U.S. Army Sponsors Palantir
Links for the day
For Second Day in a Row, Top Story in The Register MS is "Microsoft Says"
The editor in chief exercises control over everybody else
Stability and Reliability, Backward Compatibility
I don't fancy relying on social control media as "sources"
What "the News" Looks Like in 2025
The "says" (or "sez") phenomenon
History Will Be Distorted, Sometimes Intentionally, Under the Guise of Intelligence (Manipulated/Curated Slop)
Militarised misinformation or military-grade chaff is a national security threat, even domestically
Financial Engineering Companies: A Company Worth 4 Trillion Dollars Would Not Borrow 100+ Billion Dollars at Interest Rates Like Today's
Many headlines perpetuate the lie Microsoft had just 2 waves of layoffs
Microsoft is Googlebombing "Linux" While Paying Former News Sites to Publish SPAM
How much lower will IDG sink?
The Data You Don't Give Away is Your Advantage
stop sharing data that does not need to be shared
Being Obedient or Doing the Right Thing
The world always changes for the better because of people who think "Outside the Box", not the cogs
Gemini Links 01/08/2025: Happy Hacking Keyboards and New Gemini Arrivals
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 31, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 31, 2025
Moving on in Techrights, Geeks Gonna Geek
In the coming weeks we plan to focus (as we explained last week) on patents, GNU/Linux issues, and the occasional philosophical essays
Slopwatch: Google News Has Lost the Plot
Almost the majority of articles returned for "Linux" are fakes
Links 31/07/2025: Australia Restricts YouTube Access, Personal Privacy at Risk
Links for the day
Links 31/07/2025: Spotify Collapses and Spotify Now Forcing Some Users to Undergo Face-Scanning
Links for the day
A Lot of Supposedly "Successful" Businesses Are Just Debt-Racking Vessels Without Any Prospects of Financial Sustainability
The probability of bankruptcy of any business is more than 0%
theregister.com: The Voice of Microsoft US?
It basically sold out
Yes, You Can Love and Adore Things Whilst Also Criticising Them
Is society being divided and groomed/primed to be resistant to constructive criticism?
Links 31/07/2025: War in Ukraine, Security News, and Cyberattacks Against Journalists on the Rise
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/07/2025: Fake Money and Gemini Diaries
Links for the day
An Illusion and Cult Worship of Magnitude (Ubiquity as "Victory")
GNU has been around for over 40 years and it'll likely continue to exist for another 40 (in some form)
Google: From Pointing to Relevant Sites to Pointing to Social Control Media to Actually Parroting Social Control Media as "Facts"
Google has become a misinformation company
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 30, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 30, 2025
How to Report Apple Layoffs Without Saying the "L" Word
don't look for the "L" word
Wall Street Does Not Care About Microsoft's Impending (August) Layoffs, It Believes Lies From Microsoft, Whose Debt Grows Rapidly
If Microsoft is doing so well and swimming in money, why so many cuts (about 29,000 layoffs so far this year)?
Wayland Considered Harmful (to GNU/Linux Adoption)
it's not limited to games
My Experience With Judges Has been Positive, But We Must Still Pursue SLAPP Reform in the United Kingdom
We believe it'll be a "feather in the cap" if we can help change laws in the UK to better protect investigative reporters
Slopwatch Makes the Web Better
Remember what happened to BetaNews?
Slopwatch: Google News is Pumping in Lots of Web Traffic Into Fake Sites That Say "Linux"
somewhere between 30% and 40% of today's "news" about "Linux", as seen by Google News, is LLM slop
Links 30/07/2025: Climate Calamities Highlighted, Kyrgyzstan Crackdown on Expression/Freedoms
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/07/2025: Watson’s List of Limits, Lysenko 2000
Links for the day
Riot for peace & Love: Catholic Influencers and Digital Missionaries welcome Jubilee of Youth
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Some People See What Others See... But Only 40 Years Later
When people deviate from "the norm" they typically get ridiculed and dismissed as "crazy"
Links 30/07/2025: Tea Class Action and Google Killing the Web With Slop
Links for the day
Last Month Our IRC Community Turned 17
Funnily enough we never missed a single day when it comes to logging
"The Unix Kernel"
Linux was inspired by MINIX
The Register Relays Microsoft Marketing, Dubs That Marketing "Research"
Hours ago they did a "Microsoft sez" piece
Dealing With Sociopaths, Liars, and Cranks
A dysfunctional society such as this would never develop
Not Owning Mobile Phones
It's not about resistance; it's common sense
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.
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