EPO Presentation About the Granting of Many Invalid Patents, Some With 'Unitary' Effect (to Be Judged by an Illegitimate Kangaroo Court)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 04, 2024,
updated Feb 04, 2024

Lowering the standards.

YESTERDAY we published a very recent presentation from EPO, showing how EPO staff feels about the legacy of Benoît Battistelli, which is being protected and extended by his friend António Campinos.

Today's presentation (or deck of slides) deals with the decline of patent quality, departure from (abandonment of) EPC compliance, and basically the granting of illegitimate European patents, including European software patents.

First, consider the following resolution, which says a lot about quality. To quote the Local Staff Committee Munich, Haar & Brussels (LSCMN):

A resolution on objective setting was put to a vote. The general assembly voted in favour of the resolution with an overwhelming majority: 416 in favour, 4 against and 31 abstentions.
The resolution urges the EPO management to:

- Implement genuine bottom-up planning which takes into account the input of staff, the true available work capacity and the time needed for peripheral but essential tasks (training, chairing, classification, etc…);

- increase recruitment of staff, especially performing core tasks (examiners and formalities officers);

- reinstate a robust and genuine quality management (DQA);

- revise the career and performance management systems to transparently recognize, incentivise and reward delivering EPC compliant, legally sound patents; and

- prioritize the task of the organisation to grant legally sound patents meeting the requirements of the EPC.

Here is the formal document:

RESOLUTION adopted on objective setting

Staff of the EPO in Munich, gathered in a General Assembly,

Noting:

• That production targets¹ and work pressure have increased relentlessly in the last decade,

• The low level of staff engagement and high incidence of psychosocial risks,

• The mounting criticism from industry on patent quality²,

Fears the effects of the above on:

• the health of EPO staff and their commitment to the task of the Organisation;

• the capacity of the organisation to deliver on its mission of granting legally sound patents, and

• European industry;

Further noting that:

• EPO management culture instrumentalizes the employment framework (5-year contracts, Young Professionals), the career and performance management systems to put pressure on staff to produce quantity at the expense of quality of the final products (Search, Examination, Opposition);

• the policy of reducing the workforce is at odds with the trend of increasing workload;

Urges EPO top management to:

• Implement genuine bottom-up planning which takes into account the input of staff, the true available work capacity and the time needed for peripheral but essential tasks (training, chairing, classification, etc…);

• increase recruitment of staff, especially performing core tasks (examiners and formalities officers);

• reinstate a robust and genuine quality management (DQA);

• revise the career and performance management systems to transparently recognize, incentivise and reward delivering EPC compliant, legally sound patents; and

• prioritize the task of the organisation to grant legally sound patents meeting the requirements of the EPC.

Munich, 24 January 2024

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¹ Official average targets have increased from 79,6 to 96 products/examiner/year from 2013 to 2024, see here and p.5 and 17 of the 2024 budget

² See also: press articles from November 2023, September 2023, July 2023…