01.04.22

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

Posted in Europe, Patents at 6:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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 image Over 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. █

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