THE REGIME at EPOnia is desperate to hide the degree of abuse and corruption. It's therefore making it very hard for staff to unionise or to exercise rights of unions (no, the yellow union tactics haven't worked); failing that, it resorts to outright illegal measures.

"There's no need to regulate them and it's a misguided assumption which ought to be rejected."Speaking for myself, as a person who on numerous occasions over the years confronted employers (at great personal risk), I totally understand why EPO staff wants to strike and needs to occasionally go on strike. The worst situation is, managers of companies start to feel invincible and wrongly assume that staff will follow instructions uncritically, unquestionably, irrespective of morality, ethics etc.

The bosses of the EPO ought not be a bunch of politicians and crooked/failed diplomats. Scientists ought to be in charge of an inherently technical institution.

It's a bit sad if national delegates, including some who themselves used to be patent examiners (not only Susanne Sivborg but also Bruno Cinquantini), fail to grasp the importance of protest rights, which can escalate/turn into strikes. There's no need to regulate them and it's a misguided assumption which ought to be rejected. I myself went on a half-day strike last month and also confronted bosses on a number of issues in recent years, even weeks ago. Workers who just blindly "follow orders" aren't good workers; they're just convenient (to those in power). In the realm of science, opinionated and outspoken critics are necessary for true scientific debates, challenging injustices, false orthodoxies, and constantly challenging decisions that are indefensible. That's why ILO-AT will continue to receive many appeals, which it's unable to fulfill within a reasonable amount of time. The EPO is already collapsing across a number of dimensions (like scabs), but publishers are bribed by EPO management to pretend everything is OK.

On a technical note, now that there's a very high-profile security bug we should mention that the EPO's Web site, which is already poorly maintained, is at risk; you can in theory make the site go crazy (internal server errors) by crafting particular requests (not that we would do it). We'll spare the technical, pertinent details to avoid potential sabotage (I've not tried this personally), but let's just say that the EPO's brain drain affects not only patent examination. We have been saying for many years already that their IT department lacks talent and it's getting worse over time. This is how institutions perish. They lose the very people who make up those institutions. It typically starts with bad leadership, which repels, expels, or unwittingly drives out the most talented workers. ⬆