Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO's Race to the Bottom — Part I — From Bad to Worse

Summary: Today we start a series which takes a closer look at why EPO staff is so displeased and why the 'brain drain' this entails will likely doom the EPO and harm Europe financially, not just morally

A week ago we dropped a bunch of internal documents from the EPO. Our sole intention was to raise awareness, as without awareness we instead get shameless propaganda, lulling us into apathy and inaction. Things aren't fine at the EPO; far from it. A bunch of law firms -- or self-serving litigation firms -- want the public to "move on" and pretend that because Battistelli is no longer in charge we should "get on with the program", ratify the UPC, and let national patent courts be replaced by the EPO's kangaroo courts.

"There was," a reader told us, "a month or so ago, an article from SUEPO about the EPO hiring staff suffering from autism. At first I thought "well a good move" that goes beyond hiring people with disabilities. But wait a minute, the EPO changing in a positive way? That is very unlikely!"

"This may be worse than the yellow union."We responded to that debacle in this post and video from last year. This may be worse than the yellow union.

We covered the same issue in relation to technology companies in the past. The programme is spun as well-meaning if not altruistic. It's not what they say, however, definitely not what it seems on the surface, and we ran guest articles by autistic people who themselves complain about it (more links to articles are available in the link above).

"Having a closer look at the advanced reasons," the reader continued, "I realised that the EPO is not only the same but getting worse. Hiring sick people in order to presumably take advantage of one of the side effects of their illness."

"...it looks and feels like scabs."Yes, this is how technology companies market it as well. They flatter autistic people, or so they think. Those people are, in turn, feeling insulted.

"The EPO management is truly SICK (and sickening)," the reader said. "The EPO would also hire slaves or children in developing countries if they could. The important thing would be staff that are not in the Union, that don't ask questions. Just rubber stamp "granted". This office is shameless and odious."

Scab imageOver the coming few days we'll publish some internal documents illuminating what António Campinos, as EPO President for 3.5 years already (as of 3 days ago), did and continues to do to EPO staff. As we noted here before [1, 2], it looks and feels like scabs.

"Back to EPO," an associate of ours noted this morning, "I would suspect that the end game they have planned is financialization. That would enable them to fire the staff and keep a handful of beancounters around, with whom they share ideals and goals. One or two patent examiners would be kept around so they could claim to be in business but the examiner(s) would be on a really short leash, more so than now."

It's also where the "Hey Hi" [sic] hype fits in. Programs are more obedient than living things. Some of these programs are controlled by large patent applicants. It begets regulatory capture.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Register Bill
The Register MS - putting the "MS" in your centre of the universe
Analogies for "Memory Safety" in Rust
Don't worry, it's Rust! It can do anything!
 
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Linux Journal, and the Serial Slopper
Google won't tackle the issue because Google participates not only in relaying slop but also in generating lots of it
Links 07/09/2025: Google Fines in EU and "Your Internet Access Is at Risk"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/09/2025: Little Brother and Corporate Theatre
Links for the day
Links 07/09/2025: More Harms of Slop and Anthropic's Nightmare Scenario (Huge Legal Liabilities for Slop)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 06, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 06, 2025
Microsoft Sites Now Talking About September's Mass Layoffs at Microsoft
It's noteworthy that even Microsoft's MSN now covers the latest revelations about mass layoffs
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: SpellBinding Moving and "The Cloud" Ridiculed
Links for the day
Slopwatch: On "the Apology Industry", Chatbots (Punchbag for Customers), and Fake Articles About "Linux"
"news reporting priorities changed"
Links 06/09/2025: "Covid Incidence on the Rise" and Many Attacks on the Press Worldwide
Links for the day
Nobody Denies That SecureBoot Will Cause Problems After September 11
Not even Microsoft
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: Infinite Scrolling and Posting from Emacs
Links for the day
Links 06/09/2025: GitHub Meltdown Over Slop, "U.S. Jury Says Google Should Pay $425 Million in Privacy Lawsuit"
Links for the day
Despite Its Severe Financial Problems Gnome Foundation Inc Paid Rosanna Yuen Over 100,000 Dollars Last Year
maybe relocation should be considered
The "Left" and the Right"
It poisons everything
Mozilla and Rust Are Not Leftists
they're part of the mass consumerism machine
Disposable to Microsoft
There is an extensive set of people who got used by Microsoft, only to be thrown away a month later or a year later or a decade later
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VII - This Coming Week Many PCs Will Refuse to Boot "Linux" (Because of Microsoft's Expired Certificate)
The real solution is, disable "secure boot" or "SecureBoot" while it's still possible. [...] Just like submarine patents, a lot of this problem was "hibernating" for a while
The Thing Nobody in Red Hat Wants to Talk About Openly
There is a real sentiment or worry among Red Hatters, Europeans and Americans in particulars (because of higher salary expectations)
Slopwatch: Small Parade of Fake News About "Linux" and Scams Borrowing the Name (or Word) "Linux"
In practice, LLMs are a risk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 05, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 05, 2025
Genini Links 05/09/2025: Community, ROOPHLOCH, and PITkit
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Vaccine Sceptics Poison the Well, Two Exploited Vulnerabilities Patched in Android
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/09/2025: Logitech Lift and DIY Gemini Servers
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Sainsbury's Caught Spying on In-Store Shoppers and Microsoft "OpenAI is Using Legal Threats to Harass its Critics"
Links for the day
BASIC Predates Microsoft by Over a Decade, Microsoft-Controlled Sites Like The Register MS Don't Want You to Know This
The state of the media is really bad when it relies a lot on oligarchs' money and is appointing editors who are working for oligarchs
Brian Kernighan, "Only Third to Dennis Richie and Ken Thompson" (UNIX), Agreed With Someone Who Said Rust Was Just Hype, Should Not Replace C
17 hours ago
Reminder: Microsoft's "Secure Boot" Certificate for "Linux" Will be Expired in One Week
Many PCs won't manage to 'rotate' to another certificate
"Many of the Red Hat Employees Are Still Looking for Work"
Shame on IBM's CEO
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 04, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 04, 2025
Microsoft Started With Code Literally From The Trash, Nothing Has Improved Since
The reality is, there are systems and code that are reliable. But they're not Microsoft's.
Hypothesis That New McKinsey/Microsoft Executive Inside Red Hat Will Outsource Research and Development Operations to India (Like They Do in IBM)
IBM is floundering
Slopwatch: Scams, Fake Articles About "Linux", Plagiarism, and Worse
Perhaps some time soon the LLMs or the "Big LLMs" will run out of money (to borrow) and go offline, leaving those slopfarms in a tough place