Nobody ever voted for Battistelli, who now acts like a politician behind closed doors or a Big Business lobbyist behind the scenes

Summary: An internal puff piece, posted some time ago in the EPO's intranet, serves to show just how much the EPO's management intervenes in matters beyond the scope of its operation

THE EPO scandals show no sign of abatement (stay tuned for part two of the I.U. series) and Battistelli has been trying to make peace with prominent politicians, perhaps already realising that the end of his career may be near.

The following item from the EPO intranet recently came our way and we decided to write about this today. As one of our regular readers put it: "It has a distinctive "Bucharest 1980" or "Pyongyang 2015" tone, i.e., "Brussels offers enthusiastic welcome to our triumphant and infallible Dear Leader".

"Are the EU, BB [Big Business] and BB [Benoît Battistelli] really that close?"

"Did the persons named really unequivocally express such a blanket endorsement the policies of the EPO President, e.g. in the last sentence? If not, what would they make out of this communiqué?"

Well, let's examine it before breaking it down. In its raw form:

Home -> Organisation -> News -> 2015

President Battistelli visits Brussels

EU meetings reveal high support for unitary patent, transparency and reforms

President Battistelli was in Brussels on Tuesday, 20 October for a series of meetings with high-level representatives of the European institutions and business associations. In the first of his two Berlaymont visits that day, the President first met Cecilia Malmström, European Commissioner for Trade, to discuss ongoing bilateral EU trade negotiations with the United States and Japan.

The meeting with Commissioner Malmström was an opportunity to convey the significant progress being made in ongoing multilateral discussions on substantive patent law harmonisation in the Group B+, in close coordination with European industry. Among the other topics on the agenda were the EPO's international cooperation activities, in which the EPO delegation underlined the importance of aligning with the EU at the political and technical level. Ms Malmström also expressed her appreciation for the excellent cooperation between the EPO and DG TRADE, as well as welcoming the EPO's endeavours to increase information and transparency in the field of patents and medicines.

The day's programme also included a productive exchange with Research, Science and Innovation Commissioner, Carlos Moedas, who was introduced to the work of the EPO and its role in the future unitary patent system. The Commissioner expressed his strong support for the unitary patent and declared his readiness to reach out to Member States, in coordination with Commissioner Bienkowska, in order to stress the importance of promptly ratifying the Unified Patent Court Agreement. It was also proposed to further develop cooperation between the EPO and the European Commission on academic research into the economic impact on patents, which the Commissioner endorsed.

In the European Parliament, the President met with Jerzy Buzek MEP, Chair of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee and former President of the European Parliament. It was a valuable meeting in which the latest developments in the unitary patent were discussed and as well as the value of patents to European innovation.

In addition, the EPO's delegation visited the European Commission's Department for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), where they met for the first time with Lowri Evans, who has recently taken over as Director-General. Among the common areas of interest discussed were the next steps in the implementation of the unitary patent as well as the currently mounting political pressure on the biotechnology directive following the Tomatoes II / Broccoli II decisions of the Enlarged Board of Appeal. It was agreed to continue the constructive dialogue between the EPO and DG GROW at the technical level.

Finally, in a meeting with the Director-General of BUSINESSEUROPE, Markus Beyrer, President Benoît Battistelli was able to inform the business association of the latest developments in substantive patent law harmonisation and the unitary patent. It was emphasised by Mr Beyrer that the decision on True Top 4 renewal fees has been met with support from BUSINESSEUROPE. He also expressed full support for the EPO's ongoing reforms.

23.10.2015 | Author Thomas Robertson - President's Office | Target group: DG4, DG5, President-DG0, DG1, DG2, DG3

We shall tackle this one of piece at a time: Mr. Battistelli decided it was time to go lobbying in Brussels, perhaps as part of the same old push for the unitary patent (UPC) -- a bundle of joy for billionaires and multinational corporations, all at the expense of everybody else.

Battistelli met "high-level representatives", not just politicians but also business associations (like those who are fronting for the corporations with an EPO 'fast lane'). Battistelli met a well-known apologist for TPP and its secrecy, a "European Commissioner for Trade," to discuss all those so-called 'trade' issues. Which ones? The ones that Europeans are rightly outraged about. We're pretty certain these two have much in common; they're occupiers, not representatives. We know who they really serve.

Battistelli spoke to Malmström about UPC, which we often compare to TPP (no surprise there). Malmström was satisfied with Battistelli's "transparency"; given her own poor record on this issue, that's akin to Vladimir Putin congratulating the folks at Pyongyang.

Later Battistelli got to chat to/mingle with Moedas, to whom he also promoted the UPC. They are clearly stuck in an echo chamber there. He then spoke to a outspoken proponent of the UPC, Bienkowska, who had also protected Battistelli in the face of complaints (nothing was ever done about it).

Buzek, whom we mentioned here a couple of times before, was the next in line to meet Battistelli. There too Battistelli was lobbying for UPC.

Battistelli continued lobbying for the UPC in yet more places while pretty much dismissing complaints about patents he lets be granted on life (patent maximalism).

All in all, as we have warned before, the EPO is not at all impartial and it oversteps its boundaries by intervening/meddling with matters pertaining to patent scope and breadth of applicability. This is the behaviour of a business striving to maximise profits, not a public service. The EPO has already lost its way and the pseudo reporting (shameless self-promotion above) serves to reinforce this sentiment.

The EPO is supposed to be dealing with granting of patents and rejecting patent applications based on their merit, not advocate for more patents in more domains and in more countries. The EPO is now expanding like a cancer, whose natural philosophy is that expansion -- no matter how malignant -- will somehow be collectively beneficial. ⬆