Summary: These new slides on lack of rewards at the EPO shed light on grim internal affairs

THE European Patent Office (EPO) isn't neglected by us. Later this week in Munich the Administrative Council meets again (warning: epo.org link), so management is unleashing a lump of shallow puff pieces, spread equally over the past week or so in the EPO's site. Here is an annotated version:

Beneath that load of face-saving nonsense there is a lot of depressed staff that discusses the lack of rewards [PDF] for the work -- work which isn't even rewarding at all on a personal level, let aside financial. A lot of staff feels like there's growing pressure to grant illegal patents and fake "growth" this way. Leaks support this assertion. So staff is compensated less -- especially female staff -- and by flouting the European Patent Convention (EPC) the EPO grabs cash, essentially breaking the law in the process. We've meanwhile learned about further delays (yes, the usual!) for the Unified Patent Court. More false promises, new problems. Maybe a 'Unified' Patent 'Court' can start when António Campinos finally complies with orders from Geneva and allows staff to communicate. In other words, probably never. The 'Unified' Patent (Kangaroo) 'Court' is illegal, unconstitutional, and it is totally invalid because it violates several conventions. As a product of aggressive lobbying, it has mostly served to discredit the European patent system, the European Union, and the EPO. ⬆