Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXXV: Slovakian Scruples

Series parts:

  1. The EPO's Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part I: Let the Sunshine In!
  2. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part II: A “Unanimous” Endorsement?
  3. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part III: Three Missing Votes
  4. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IV: The Founding States
  5. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part V: Germany Says “Ja”
  6. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VI: A Distinct Lack of Dutch Courage
  7. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VII: Luxembourgish Laxity
  8. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VIII: Perfidious Albion and Pusillanimous Hibernia
  9. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IX: More Holes Than Swiss Cheese
  10. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part X: Introducing the Controversial Christian Bock
  11. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XI: “General Bock” - Battistelli's Swiss Apprentice?
  12. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XII: The French Connection
  13. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XIII: Battistelli's Iberian Facilitators - Spain
  14. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XIV: Battistelli's Iberian Facilitators - Portugal
  15. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XV: Et Tu Felix Austria…
  16. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVI: The Demise of the Austrian Double-Dipper
  17. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVII: The Non-Monolithic Nordic Bloc
  18. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVIII: Helsinki's Accord
  19. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IXX: The Baltic States
  20. an earlier part
  21. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXI: The Balkan League – The Doyen and His “Protégée”
  22. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXII: The Balkan League - North Macedonia and Albania
  23. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXIII: The Balkan League - Bulgaria
  24. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXIV: The Balkan League - Romania
  25. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXV: The Balkan League - Fresh Blood or Same Old, Same Old?
  26. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXVI: A Trojan Horse on the Budget and Finance Committee
  27. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXVII: Cypriot Complicity
  28. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXVIII: Benoît and António's Loyal “Habibi”
  29. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IXXX: The EPOnian Micro-States - Monaco and Malta
  30. the San Marino delegate Bruno Cinquantini
  31. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXXI: The Abstentionists
  32. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXXII: “Plucky Little Belgium”?
  33. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXXIII: Swedish Scepticism
  34. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXXIV: An “Extremely Dubious” Proposal
  35. YOU ARE HERE ☞ Slovakian Scruples


Luboš Knoth
Head of the Slovak delegation, Luboš Knoth. [PDF]



Summary: Today we examine the Slovakian vote on the unlawful "Strike Regulations"; Luboš Knoth used to work for the EPO, so he could relate somewhat to his former colleagues

As already noted in an earlier part of this series, Slovakia was the only member of the Visegrád Group that actively withheld its support from Benoît Battistelli's "Strike Regulations" proposal.



The delegations from Hungary and the Czech Republic did not bother to turn up for the vote and Poland voted in favour.

In June 2013, the Slovak delegation was headed by Luboš Knoth.

"A former EPO employee like Susanne Sivborg from Sweden, Knoth seems to have had a certain degree of empathy with his erstwhile colleagues at the EPO..."Knoth was head of the Industrial Property Office of the Slovakian Republic between June 2012 and October 2016 and prior to that he had worked at the Vienna branch Office of the EPO as a "project manager for administration of cooperation activities" between September 2005 and 2008.

A former EPO employee like Susanne Sivborg from Sweden, Knoth seems to have had a certain degree of empathy with his erstwhile colleagues at the EPO, unlike the majority of his peers on the Administrative Council who behaved in the manner of "absentee landlords".

In this regard, Knoth and Sivborg acted in stark contrast to the San Marino delegate Bruno Cinquantini, a shameless opportunist who appears to have had no scruples about selling out his former colleagues at the EPO.

"The Slovak refusal to support the "Strike Regulations" is noteworthy because Battistelli had done his level best to co-opt this junior member of the Visegrád Group."However, like Sivborg, Knoth's criticism of the manifestly unlawful "Strike Regulations" was rather muted and timid and gives the impression that there were only minor problems with Battistelli's proposal.

This can be seen from the statement of the Slovak position recorded under point no. 115 of the minutes of the 136th [PDF] Administrative Council meeting:

"The Slovak delegation commented on some of the detailed drafting. On balance, it felt that the proposal was a good faith one, but not ideal. Having said that, it shared the understanding that a legal basis should be set and rules established. It would favour a review of the policy and its results, should the Office's proposal be adopted. It would like to see a fair and constructive, functioning social dialogue in the Office in future."


The Slovak refusal to support the "Strike Regulations" is noteworthy because Battistelli had done his level best to co-opt this junior member of the Visegrád Group.

"The backdrop to this conference was the European Union's plan for "the introduction of a unitary patent and litigation system"."Already in June 2011 (warning: epo.org link) – that is to say, approximately one year after he had assumed the position of EPO President - Battistelli convened a conference of "the EPO and its member states" in Bratislava for the purpose of discussing "how to bring co-operation forward in a number of areas in order to improve the quality and efficiency of the European patent system, and thus better serve industry".

The backdrop to this conference was the European Union's plan for "the introduction of a unitary patent and litigation system".

The official records show that Battistelli was accompanied on that occasion by his cooperation fund "bagman" François-Régis Hannart and his virtuoso of legal sophistry, EPO Vice-President Raimund Lutz.

Battistelli, François-Régis Hannart, and Raimund Lutz
Battistelli (r.) accompanied by EPO "bagman" François-Régis Hannart (l.) and EPO Vice-President Raimund Lutz (c.) at an EPO conference held in Bratislavia in June 2011.



The following year, in November 2012 [PDF], Battistelli sent a delegation headed by his "bagman" Hannart on a visit to the Slovak Industrial Property Office to discuss "bilateral cooperation" affairs. Hannart was accompanied by Georg Artelsmair from the EPO's "European Cooperation Directorate" and Katarína Laššová, a cooperation projects co-ordinator.

François-Régis Hannart, Georg Artelsmair, and Katarína Laššová
EPO "bagman" François-Régis Hannart (c.) flanked by Georg Artelsmair (l.) and Katarína Laššová (r.) visiting the Slovak Industrial Property Office in November 2012.



In May 2013 just before the 136th Meeting of the EPO Administrative Council, Battistelli turned up in Bratislava in person. The ostensible purpose of this visit was to attend an event (warning: epo.org link) to mark the 20th anniversary of the Slovak Industrial Property Office.

"With hindsight it seems clear that as far back as 2013, Campinos was being carefully groomed as the "designated successor" of Battistelli at the helm of the EPO, a role which he ultimately assumed in July 2018."Battistelli was accompanied by an "EPO delegation" which met with the Slovak Minister of Economic Affairs Tomáš Malatinský.

This "EPO delegation" included an "observer" in the person of António Campinos, who was at that time the head of EU trademark agency OHIM.

With hindsight it seems clear that as far back as 2013, Campinos was being carefully groomed as the "designated successor" of Battistelli at the helm of the EPO, a role which he ultimately assumed in July 2018.

Battistelli and Tomáš Malatinský
Battistelli meeting with Slovakian Minister of Economic Affairs Tomáš Malatinský in Bratislava in May 2013.
His "designated successor", António Campinos, can be seen in the background.



Despite Battistelli's attempts to turn Slovakia into one of his "captured states" on the EPO Administrative Council, the head of the Slovak delegation Luboš Knoth did not succumb to the blandishments of the Corsican despot and refused to endorse the liberticidal "Strike Regulations" at the 136th Meeting of the EPO Council in June 2013.

Slovakia's abstentionist position was followed by two EPO member states from the Balkan region, namely Serbia and Slovenia.

In the next part we will take a look at the delegation representing the Republic of Serbia.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
 
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Google Helps Ponzi Schemes and Slopfarms in Google News
Slopfarms are a real pain
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Retiring at 62 and URL Filtering HTTP(S) Proxy on Qubes OS
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Lisa Cook Sues Convicted Felon and Backdoor Mandate in UK Resisted
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
Downlplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025