How the European Patent Office Became a Crime and Corruption Hub, One of Europe's Biggest
Yesterday a reader kindly asked for us to explain the situation at the European [sic] Patent Office in terms that a non-insider (of the Office) can understand. "Some entry level articles about EPO somewhere would help when trying to reach out to mainstream media," he said again some hours ago, and "the ongoing staff strikes are a good opportunity for that".
It usually boils down to when we can find the time to do this, as we did this numerous times before.
We actually got told, both by insiders and former insiders, that a simply worded summary would help them in outreach to the media - i.e. some sites that genuinely wish to cover EPO scandals but don't know where to start.
So here is an incomplete outline of key events.
In 2010 or thereabouts, two overambitious Frenchmen (one is a dual-national Portuguese) used political connections and nefarious means (dirty politics) to gain control of the EPO and EUIPO. They were aided by corrupt politicians and some of the worst possible dirty politics (one is connected to Cocainegate; he's the father of the man arrested for cocaine) and another was a Dane who slaughtered chinchillas at his home while doing corrupt business ventures in Denmark (he would get the boot, albeit only in or around 2016 - at which point he lost the limelight entirely). Based on the previous president of the EPO, who came from the UK, she had been pushed out by the aforementioned "alphamales" (that is the term she used). The EPO would then be run only by Frenchmen (for decades to come; prior to her, it was also a Frenchman in charge). It was 100% about nepotism and relevant experience would not matter at all; this was similarly applicable to managers from the UK. It wasn't a patent office anymore; it was a money-making machine pretending to practice law.
In years to come, the "Mafia" that took over the Office would plunder staff, attack the union (which predates the Office), attack judges, bully the media, bribe academia (for self-serving propaganda that presents a corrupt patent office as "success story"), lobby for an illegal patent tribunal, and draft illegal policies to support the pyramid scheme.
Over time, this patent office would resemble "organised crime" (sold to the public as something it is clearly not), hire low-paid scabs, significantly reduce hiring requirements, bribe officials (and nations), and grossly misuse funds in all sorts of ways. It would outsource operations to companies with an obvious conflict of interest (also based outside Europe), dismantle all notions of neutrality, and routinely send threats to media critical of all this. As suicide (among Office staff) became an obvious problem there was pressure for one leader to leave the Office, but he left a longtime friend of his in charge, so nothing improved except optics (owing to censorship).
In 2025 the spillover of corruption manifested in "cocaine form". Colleagues came out and spoke out about the problem (which they had long known about and German police helped confirm). 2 months later the staff began going on strike and by April 2026 those strikes became an everyday thing. As of this month, the "Mafia" is trying to crush such industrial actions by encouraging illegal actions.
Why is the media silent when "Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO) Goes on Strike That Can Last Until 2027"? What does that tell us about the state of today's broadcasting companies? █