Internal EPO Presentation Shows How Patent Examiners Are Subjected to Pressure and Threats of Firing/Demotion If They Don't Grant 'Enough' Monopolies
THE EPO's patent examiners are besieged. It's no secret that they're unable to do their job as the European Patent Convention (EPC) demands because Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos changed the rules to make them EPC-violating. It's all about producing as many patent monopolies as possible (for profit). That includes, based on very important leaks, software patents. This must be stopped.
A few weeks ago the Local Staff Committee The Hague wrote to colleagues, alerting some of them upfront that they would be cautioned for not producing "enough" patents, which in the eyes of the Campinos Monopoly Office constitutes "incompetence" (not that Campinos has any scientific background or a real grasp of science).
Here is what staff was told:
Reporting exercise 2023 - Learn how to contest your appraisal report
Dear colleagues,
We will soon all receive our appraisal reports, which are supposed to document our work for the EPO and which are used as basis in career, selection, and incompetence decisions.
It is an important document!
In these times of high production pressure and unsustainable objectives, we therefore advise you to carefully read your appraisal report and to contest it, if necessary.
The slides accompanying last year’s presentation have been updated by your staff representatives to guide you through the possible actions you can undertake, in reaction to an appraisal report which would not reflect your activity in 2023.
Kind regards,
Your Local Staff Committee The Hague
The updated presentation, which can be found here, talks about an issue that predates Campinos. Basically, people complying with the laws and treaties that govern them (notably EPC) can be subjected to the labour (a la UK legal) equivalent of "gross incompetence" and let go/dismissed. As if nothing could be worse than turning down many requests for monopoly or simply assessing applications long enough to properly understand them and meaningfully respond to them.
The Local Staff Committee The Hague suggests challenging negative appraisal reports and even escalating the matter to a court which EPO dictators refuse to obey.
Here are the 13 slides:
Imagine working as a scientist under these ludicrous conditions, wherein not the quality guides the work but some ludicrous applicants-friendly "targets"? This profound managerial issue is the real professional incompetence - and one that spills over to the EU. █