Video download link | md5sum d5416bdd6943bebdadc0bb8d9c053688 Rally for EPO Actions Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: This morning a bunch of documents were circulated to explain in a more concise fashion abuses that EPO staff had been subjected to; we focus on aspects of law rather than finance although there are legal aspects to the finances in lieu of the European Patent Convention (because of the need for high-calibre examiners with plenty of experience and a broad range of skills)

SUEPO, the staff union of the EPO, has heralded the strike. This morning its homepage looks like this:

There's this graphic:



We're very pleased to see that workers of the EPO have the courage to say "no!" to Benoît Battistelli and his minion António Campinos. They're both representing the exact same agenda -- an agenda that the media has been co-opted to promote (or simply ignore) rather than condemn and antagonise in other ways. This isn't just about EPO staff; what's at stake here is Europe's future and the direction of science. European software patents do nobody any favours, except patent litigation companies and monopolists that are rarely even based in Europe. UPC isn't about saving money but about costing more money (a greater level of 'damages'). We hope that examiners also recognise that patents on vaccines have helped COVID-19 spread and mutate; when the sole goal is profit, not innoculation, we end up with pandemics that last years and kill millions of vulnerable people (usually poor people who lack access to medicines and healthcare).

"There has meanwhile been a disclosure/release of several more documents regarding the latest strike and motivations for it.""Remember you have a voice," the SUEPO Committee wrote. "If you remain silent, the administration will speak in your place claiming you are supporting the changes that so negatively affect you. Speak for yourself! Use your voice to show your dissatisfaction! The cost of using your voice is back to the original 1/30th factor, per strike day. STRIKE! See you on Tuesday!"

We've already seen how in letters that came out Campinos was belittling the strikes, using the same lies as Battistelli (pretending it was some "loud minority").

There has meanwhile been a disclosure/release of several more documents regarding the latest strike and motivations for it. Those are discussed in the video above and we're including them here as PDF files, mostly for lack of time. The strike is motivated by a lack of human rights [PDF], solidarity [PDF], and financial factors as well [1, 2, 3] [PDF]. ⬆