Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO Bundestagate -- Part 2: Lack of Parliamentary Oversight, Many Questions and Few Answers…

Series index:

  1. The EPO Bundestagate -- Part 1: How the Bundestag Was (and Continues to be) Misled About EPO Affairs
  2. You are here ☞ Lack of Parliamentary Oversight, Many Questions and Few Answers…


EU institution
Despite its "European" moniker, the EPO is not an EU institution and is not subject to the jurisdiction of the European Parliament



Summary: The EPO lacks oversight in Germany and elsewhere; Benoît Battistelli even openly bragged about this, unlike António Campinos

As is generally known, the EPO is an autonomous international organisation which is not subject to external oversight by any national or supranational parliamentary body.



In particular, the EPO is not an EU institution so the European Parliament has no statutory role in supervising it.

There is supposed to be an instrument of political supervision in the form of the ministerial conference of Article 4a EPC which, however, appears to be a purely mythical construct that only exists on paper.

Some readers will recall Battistelli's interview given to the French press back in September 2012 when he boasted that in his new role as EPO President he had "never been so free":

"I am not subject to any supervisory ministry, parliament, or government. We are the ones who set the rules, discuss them, negotiate them."


The mysterious "we" to whom Battistelli referred on that occasion was the EPO's Administrative Council which as is well known was more or less entirely subservient to his whims and vagaries.

Indeed it is reported that the majority of the delegations were quite literally in Battistelli's pocket as he obtained their favour by means of largesse dispensed in the form of "cooperation project" funding.

"There is supposed to be an instrument of political supervision in the form of the ministerial conference of Article 4a EPC which, however, appears to be a purely mythical construct that only exists on paper."At the same time, since the entry into force of Article 4a EPC in 2007, the EPO Administrative Council has managed to evade political supervision in a sneaky and duplicitous manner by failing to convene a ministerial conference.

This has resulted in a situation in which the EPO is de facto managed as a self-service "smörgÃ¥sbord" buffet by the proverbial "quango" of unelected bureaucrats who are not subject to any effective political oversight and remain only nominally accountable for their actions to their supervising ministries and the national governments which appoint them.

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)
Questions about EPO governance have been asked in supranational parliamentary bodies such as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)



Nevertheless, from time to time - much to the irritation and chagrin of the Administrative Council and EPO management - questions have been asked about EPO governance not only in supranational parliamentary bodies, such as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the European Parliament, but also in the national parliaments of the organisation's contracting states.

"In his home country, Battistelli was denounced as "a disgrace to France" in the National Assembly, in particular because of the witch-hunts which he instigated against elected staff representatives with the aid of his personal union-busting Pinkertons, the EPO's notorious "Investigative Unit"."In fact, this became quite a regular occurrence during Battistelli's "reign of terror" as news of his managerialist excesses à la France Telecom gradually leaked out into the public domain.

In his home country, Battistelli was denounced as "a disgrace to France" in the National Assembly, in particular because of the witch-hunts which he instigated against elected staff representatives with the aid of his personal union-busting Pinkertons, the EPO's notorious "Investigative Unit".

In the Netherlands, the EPO's number two host state, politicians spoke openly about the abuses of the despotic "système Battistelli" and condemned them on the floor of the national Parliament and in interviews with the Dutch media.

In the main host state Germany, where the EPO's headquarters are located, politicians were far more timid and reticent and - for whatever reason - mostly chose not to get involved in scrutinising EPO affairs in any kind of meaningful way.

Maybe this has something to do with the large amount of national renewal fee income which the Federal Republic of Germany collects from patents granted by the EPO.

According the most recently available figures (see EPO Renewal Fee Estimates [PDF]), the estimated national renewal fee income accruing to Germany in 2021 from patents granted by the EPO is approximately EUR€ 211 million. These are the annual fees paid by patent proprietors to keep their patents in force in a particular national jurisdiction.

Overall, in 2021 Germany is estimated to receive a little over one third of the "cake" of EUR 611 million, representing the grand total all national renewal fee income generated by EPO-granted patents across all of the 38 contracting states.

It is also estimated that renewal fees on patents granted by the EPO account for almost half of the annual income of the German Patent & Trademark Office.

From these figures it becomes apparent that Germany is one of the main financial beneficiaries of the EPO's activities. Germany also benefits indirectly from the fact that a substantial part of the income of active EPO staff in Munich and Berlin, as well as EPO pensioners resident in Germany, flows into the local economy.


German politicians tend to be reluctant to pry into the inner workings of the EPO "Dukatenesel".



"However, as we shall see in the next part, from time to time a small but courageous minority of German public representatives have dared to table parliamentary questions about the EPO both at regional and federal level."These facts may go some way towards explaining the reluctance of German politicians to start prying into the inner workings of this lucrative "Dukatenesel".

However, as we shall see in the next part, from time to time a small but courageous minority of German public representatives have dared to table parliamentary questions about the EPO both at regional and federal level.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The FSF Board and FSF Beard
So the FSF's Board has grown
Law Firms Facing the Consequences for Patently Abusive Litigation on Behalf of Microsoft Employees Who Got Arrested for Strangulation and Had Done Even Worse Things
Having spent 1.5 years bullying me with patronising letters on behalf of Microsofters, last week they got served a massive bill and, in effect, lost the Hearing
LLMs Breaking Everything
Computing and the Net became a playground for scammers and "bros", like people who "invented" fake currencies and also try to tell us that LLMs spewing out things will have some real value
 
Links 22/06/2025: Giving Up on Smartphones and 'Jaws' at 50
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/06/2025: Furniture Construction and Bubble for Comments
Links for the day
Links 22/06/2025: Windows TCO Tales and YouTube Getting More Hostile to Users
Links for the day
New Report From the EPO's Staff Representatives in The Hague (LSCTH) Reveals Many Unsolved Issues
Local Staff Committee The Hague (LSCTH) wrote to staff just before the weekend
Links 22/06/2025: More Slop Lawsuits (Copyrights) and "America’s Oligarch Problem"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/06/2025: Gigantic Toolchest and Annoying Bots
Links for the day
The Calling
Persist and persevere, justice will come your way
So Far Every BetaNews 'Article' is LLM Slop, So BetaNews is Officially Just a Slopfarm
They just don't seem to value what they have
IBM Rumour: Mass Layoffs (RAs) Lists Being Made for Consulting, With Effect in July 2025
Bogus companies with no viable products and no world-leading (in their field) staff are doomed to perish
Links 21/06/2025: Data Breach With 16 Billion Passwords, Dutch Government Recommends Children Under 15 Stay off TikTok and Instagram
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/06/2025: Notes about Typst (and LaTeX) and Opos
Links for the day
Microsoft's Competition Tactics: Sabotage GNU/Linux Installs, Block Chrome
Edge is dying
1989: Free Software as "Open" Software (OSI Didn't Coin "Open Source", It Also Predates Linux)
"One man's fight for Free software"
The Microsoft OOXML Modus Operandi: Throw 1,000 Pages of Other People's Work for a Judge to Read Ahead of a One-Hour Meeting
No time to discuss this - that's the point
Formalities Officers (FOs) at the EPO Are in Trouble, Reveals Internal Report
We already know, based on an HR pattern we saw at IBM and elsewhere, that reallocating roles can be prerequisite for dismissal and those who do so expect many to resign anyway
The Web is Slop and FUD, Let's Go to Gemini Protocol
Lupa sees self-signed capsules at 92.4%
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 20, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 20, 2025
Links 21/06/2025: Phone Bans for Concerts, Tensions in Taiwan Strait
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/06/2025: Spoilers, Public Yggdrasil Node, Changes to AuraGem Search
Links for the day
"Six years of Gemini!"
From gemini://geminiprotocol.net
Gemini Links 20/06/2025: Summer Updates and Hardware Failures
Links for the day
Links 20/06/2025: Google Shareholder Sues Google and Google Sued for Defamatory Slop ('Hey Hi') Word Salads ('Summaries')
Links for the day
Linux Journal Might Have Become the Latest Slopfarm Targeting "Linux", the Trends Are Concerning for Dying News Sites
They tarnish the Web with junk and then die
On "Learning to Code"
quality may suffer, plus things get bloated
Quick Points Regarding This Week's Court Hearing
it paves the way for us to squash all the SLAPPs from Microsofters
Common Mistake: Believing Social Control Media Will Document Your Writings/Thoughts and Search Engines Like Google Will Help You Find These
Many news sites wrongly assumed that posting directly to Twitter would be acceptable
The Manchester Bees and This Hot Summer
We have had a fantastic week so far this week
Gemini Protocol Enters Its Seventh Year, Growth Has Accelerated!
Maybe in June 20 2026 there will be over 3,500 active capsules?
Mastodon and the Fediverse Have an Issue: Liability for Content (Even in Other Instances) and Costs
self-hosting is the only logical path forward
Why Microsoft and Its 'Hey Hi' (Slop) Frenzy Fail While Sinking in Deep, Growing Debt
Right now, like Twitter around the time it was sold to MElon, "open" "hey hi" is a big pile of debt with a lot to pay for that debt (interest payments)
Europe is Leaving Microsoft, the Press Coverage Isn't Sufficiently Helpful
The news is generally positive, but the press coverage leaves so much to be desired
Slopwatch: Linuxsecurity, BetaNews, and Linux Journal
slippery slope
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 19, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/06/2025: Gemini Protocol Turns 6!
Links for the day