Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Robbery Under the Shadow of Pandemic Sweeping Across Europe

Old Icelandic Cashiers



Old cash drawSummary: The EPO is being looted by corrupt management which gaslights the staff and turns the Office into somewhat of a laughing stock (even stakeholders have grown impatient, seeing that justice itself ceased to exist in EPOnia)

The Central Staff Committee of the EPO has just circulated the following document. It shows that António Campinos isn't more credible than Benoît Battistelli and the money only flows outwards to a financial scam, rather than to staff which does all the actual work (under exceptional circumstances).



Here's what it says:

Zentraler Personalausschuss Central Staff Committee Le Comité Central du Personnel

Munich 22.03.2021 sc21040cp – 0.2.1/4.2.1

Reward exercise for pandemic year 2020
“Strong Together” but 30% of staff excluded



In a meeting with the Central Staff Committee on 24 February 2021, Mr Campinos announced that “in view of the efforts of staff to ensure business continuity under the challenging pandemic conditions, up to 70% of staff will be able to receive a pensionable reward” and confirmed his intention in an Intranet publication the following day. Mr Campinos has now tabled to the General Consultative Committee his “President’s Instructions on Rewards 2021” effectively confirming that 30% of eligible staff will be excluded. The document also reveals that Mr Campinos has even downsized the budget available for rewards despite massive savings made on the salary adjustment procedure.

2020, the first Covid-19 year... The year 2020 was a challenge for all staff. When the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, EPO management put the focus on ensuring business continuity at all costs. Home-working, paperless and home-schooling became the rule. Constantly changing new digital procedures and tools were introduced. Thanks to the dedication of EPO staff, by the end of 2020 the EPO annual cash surplus amounted to at least EUR 310m (CA/56/20). When presenting1 the February 2021 analysis2 “Intellectual property rights and firm performance in the European Union”, Mr Campinos explained that "[t]he stronger your IPR portfolio, the better your business performs. And IPR-owning businesses don't just generate more revenue, their employees earn more too.” Likewise, EPO staff should be thanked for making such achievements possible even during the pandemic.

... but downsizing the available budget Mr Campinos presented in the Budget and Finance Committee (BFC) and the Administrative Council (AC) a draft budget 2021(CA/50/20) foreseeing:

- a salary adjustment of 2,2% bringing the basic salary mass3 to EUR 1.020.395.000; - a budget for pensionable rewards4 of EUR 13.400.000 and of EUR 12.856.9775 for bonuses. ____ 1 EPO post of 19 February 2021 on LinkedIn 2 “According to this analysis, firms that own IPRs generate 20% higher revenues per employee than their counterparts without an IP portfolio. The highest revenue-per-employee gains are linked to bundles of trademarks, with performance premiums of 63% for trade mark and design owners, and 60% for combined patent, trade mark and design owners. Firms that own IPRs also pay on average 19% higher wages than firms that do not.” 3 CA/50/20 page 67 4 CA/50/20 page 168 5 CA/50/20 page 169




However, Mr Campinos’ disastrous reform of the salary adjustment procedure capping the increase of global salary mass at Eurozone inflation (0,3%) + 0.2% had a massive impact in the final budget (CA/D 1/20):

- the salary adjustment of 0,5% decreased the expected salary mass6 to EUR 1.002.075.000 - the budget for pensionable rewards almost remained almost unchanged EUR 13.490.000 and the budget for bonuses was reduced at EUR 12.626.145

As a result of the new salary adjustment procedure, Mr Campinos made between the two documents savings of EUR 18.320.000 at the expense of staff without making any compensation effort on the budget for rewards.

Doubling down against staff, Mr Campinos has now tabled to the General Consultative Committee (GCC) his “President’s Instructions on Rewards 2021” (GCC/DOC 1/2021) which reduce the budget for rewards even further:













Pensionable Bonuses Rewards Total
Draft Budget 2021 (CA/50/20) 13.400.000 12.856.977 26.256.977
Annual Budget 2021 (CA/D 1/20) 13.490.000 12.626.145 26.116.145
President‘s Instructions (GCC/DOC 1/2021) 12.100.000 10.500.000 22.600.000
Downsizing of rewards budget -1.300.000 -2.356.977 -3.656.977


“Strong Together”? How companies treat employees during a crisis reveal their true values. The way they reward them is one of them. Even when making at least EUR 310m surplus and unexpected savings of EUR 18 million, Mr Campinos cuts the budget for rewards by a further EUR -3.6 million. It shows that, contrary to what Mr Campinos promised after the Financial Study 2019, when the Organisation makes more savings than expected, these are not redistributed to staff.

We are still in a pandemic situation and with different pressures on each of us. It is morally questionable to maintain a competition-based system that goes blatantly against the values of cooperation that the administration propagates, thereby excluding 30% of eligible staff. Such a regressive and non-inclusive policy is impossible to reconcile with the “Strong Together” message the Office is trying to convey.

Mr Campinos has still full room for manoeuvre to show his recognition of the efforts of EPO staff by rewarding each staff member with a pensionable reward, especially during a pandemic. Not to do so will be his decision.

The Central Staff Committee

____ 6 CA/D 1/20 page 57



The EPO has become so rogue that it cares neither about Europe nor its very own staff (people who do all the acual work). As we noted the other day, stakeholders are starting to notice that this whole thing is coming down, even justice itself. They've accused the EPO of likely spying on IP Kat comments and putting some of their own there. Weeks after a besieged panel said "OK" to some European software patents (dubious decision tainted by Campinos intervening) we now see EPO management crucified for meddling in another case or stacking the panel. Hours ago somebody wrote: "A question. The deemed date of receipt of the summons is Saturday 27th March. Does the two month period under Rule 115 EPC start on the 27th or the 29th March?"

"As we noted the other day, stakeholders are starting to notice that this whole thing is coming down, even justice itself."The more interesting comments are above that one, but we still don't know if Rose (AstraZeneca) deletes some of the better comments (we just know she deleted quite a few) and whether EPO management is pressuring them behind the scenes, as they did before...

Interesting times for sure.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The 'Culture Wars' in Free Software Have Gone Out of Control
Social control media amplifies such utterly infantile discourse
10 Out of 10: RMS Attracts Massive Audience in Göteborg, Sweden (All Seats Occupied, Some People Standing)
a 55-second clip of his talk
The Lawsuit by Clients of Brett Wilson LLP Against Brett Wilson LLP is Officially On, It is Progressing, The 'Experts' Pick Outside Law Firms (RPC and Mills & Reeve) to Spare Them From Litigants in Person
So it is probably quite potent
Slopwatch: Plagiarism and "Linux" Articles by Bots
Sites that do this won't survive; many of them rely on slop services (suppliers) that will cease to exist after the bubble bursts
 
Geminispace is Very Large
The word continues to spread and the number of participants grows
Teaser: To Compensate for the Fact Our Clients Are Terrible Human Beings Who Strangle Women (While on Microsoft's Payroll) and We Get Paid by Mystery Parties We Bombard You and Your Wife With Almost 10 Kilograms of Legal Papers
If you can't win an argument, then drown the other side with papers?
Another Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, This Time During National Day Holiday
This time it's China again
Staying Happy in Times of Crackdowns on Civil Society
Optimism in this sort of "new reality" or "new normal" seems like something for the irrational person
"Nobel" Exploited Posthumously for "AI" Hype, Now They Do the Same With "Quantum"
ere have been many jokes about "Nobel" for peace (often granted to pro-war people) and a fake one for "Economics" (establishment propaganda)
Distinguished Lecture by Richard Stallman This Coming Monday in Rome
After "Free software, Crucial for Freedom in a Digital World"
Links 10/10/2025: Putin Admits Russia Downed Azerbaijan Airlines Jet, More New Heat Records
Links for the day
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
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
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