EPO as Tower of Babel (No Formality Officers)
THE grossly understaffed EPO is producing more patent monopolies than ever by lowering standards. Efficiency is the go-to buzzword, but in practice it's just a euphemism for breaking the law, violating the EPC etc.
The recent General Assembly discussed a number of other problems for staff. Recruitment (or lack thereof) was discussed the other day and next on the agenda was Job Group 5&6. There's "no recruitment" there. Here are the presentation slides about it:
Job Group 5&6
The case of FOs [formality officers]0 RECRUITMENT
• 2019 – 2024
• 2025 onwards?
• A fragile balance
• 0 recruitment means 0 knowledge transfer
Job Group 5&6
The case of FOs [formality officers]Unstructured ways of working
Only sufficient staffing allows a stable work-frame structure
• Fire-brigading as a way of working
• Efficiency [down]
Job Group 5&6
The case of FOs [formality officers]FUTURE OF THE WORK
• Treating exception cases? Upskilling?
• IT Tools : the dream and the reality
Job Group 5&6
The case of FOs [formality officers]No recruitment
High hopes for AI and automation
The limbo state must stop now
So there's nobody managing what needs to be managed. The fate of the formality officers was discussed here before.
The text above (last slide) should say "hypes" rather then "hopes". There's nothing new there except hype and a media frenzy trying to rationalise mass layoffs. █