Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO President Battistelli Now Intimidates Even National Delegations

Someone has just gone Battis* insane

President Battistelli



Summary: Report about an embarrassing incident implicating Benoît Battistelli and some angry comments cast over the witch-hunting of a judge, using all sorts of questionable tactics

THE EPO long ago lost the respect it once had. It is not the fault of patent examiners but the fault of the management, which is now abusing lawyers and threatening politicians because they increasingly get the courage to stand up to them. The reign of terror is no longer directed only inwards but also outwards. Even external entities are being bullied by the EPO's management. How on Earth is this even possible, especially coming from a public body (not private)? Immunity on steroids has turned the EPO into some kind of Mafia at the very heart of Germany, not far from the Italian border.



"The reign of terror is no longer directed only inwards but also outwards. Even external entities are being bullied by the EPO's management."This audio of Battistelli was recorded at a meeting with delegations of the Administrative Council last year. The arrogance of this man and his bad policies were so outrageous that people who attended decided to leak this audio. Some people were appalled by all that. Well, maybe they should start bringing cameras too, considering today's story.

The story is not entirely new, but we have not mentioned this before. It was mentioned (at least in part) by one of the commenters in IP Kat and we managed to get hold of the fuller story which relates to this:

Mr Battistelli's social diplomacy



For years the Member States let Mr Battistelli reign over the EPO with little - if any - supervision of the way the Office was being run. In June 2014 they even supported the prolongation of his term of office for 3 more years from July 2015 at a time when the social situation was already very tense and there were clear signs of a drift towards an authoritarian regime at the EPO. It seemed that nothing - not even the judgment of the Appeal Court of The Hague against the Organisation in February 2015 nor the occurrence of five suicides in 39 months - seemed capable of awaking the Administrative Council (AC) from its complacent lethargy. There are signs that this may be changing. Several questions and criticisms from delegations (BFC delegations are manned by roughly the same people as the AC delegations) during the last meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee (BFC) on 22 and 23 October in Munich showed that Mr Battistelli no longer enjoys the full confidence of several delegations.

"After the meeting had concluded he went in turn to the French and Norwegian delegations whom he fiercely rebuked for their respective actions and in such an overbearing manner that it caused visible emotional distress to a member of the French delegation. These incidents took place in full view of the other (speechless) delegations."Dealing with opinions that diverge from his own is not one of Mr Battistelli's main strengths. During the BFC meeting a critical comment from the Norwegian delegation concerning the inappropriate lack of information provided to the BFC for making informed decisions, and the voting pattern of the French delegation (abstention on the 2016 EPO budget, vote against the President's proposal on the tax adjustment for pensioners) triggered instant and brusque responses from the President. But Mr Battistelli went even further. After the meeting had concluded he went in turn to the French and Norwegian delegations whom he fiercely rebuked for their respective actions and in such an overbearing manner that it caused visible emotional distress to a member of the French delegation. These incidents took place in full view of the other (speechless) delegations.

Can the Member States afford to tolerate such incidents involving the public humiliation of their delegates without the AC risking a serious loss of credibility as the governing body of our organisation (not to mention the duty of care they owe to the national delegates sitting in the BFC/AC)? Only time will tell...



Bullying such as this is often a sign of insecurity. It's really self-explanatory a deed.

As an aside, the Administrative Council (AC) has been using -- possible in vain -- the "EPO" name in order to go after the boards, based on this recently-'leaked' PDF. Using improper (from a legal standing) requests didn't work out too well because the document got released to the public and people wrote harsh comments, such as:

In the nut shell, the EBA tells the AC that their request is inadmissible due to that it is legaly flawed. Also the decision of the DC appointed by the AC is equally legaly flawed. Thus, manifestly apparently, collectively the AC has miserably failed in its duty of care towards the member of the BOA by subjecting him to legaly flawed disciplinary proceedings. Moreover, collectively the AC has miserably failed the EPO and the European public by failing to calrify serious accusation of misconduct by a member of the BOA. Moreover, with the big help of the president and vice-presidents any further prosecution of this case has been seriously prejudist by publicising the details of the case in newspapers, and the AC did not manage to prevent this. Hence, the AC is not controling the stuation but rather it controlls them.

I do not see how there is anything els for the AC left to do, other than collectively resign at the next meeting in Decemebr.

"Asking a judicial body to tell the claimant what he should do in order to win his case is simply flabbergasting. Being faced by the non-admissibility of its request, wanting to reopen the discussion on admissibility is plainly laughable."They can then appoint BB as a temporary adminsitrator of the duties of the AC in lue of them. Then BB can swiftly investigate himself, in accordance with the EPC, in regard of the outageous charges of institutional abuse of the union, appoint a DC and win the case.

[...]

The perhaps most extraordinary element in the decision comes early, namely its cover page, where it is indicated that the Administrative Council's representative actually was ... the EPO! What a mess.

[...]

What is extremely worrying is that this bunch of people, the AC and the president are presiding over the fate of a major institution in the world of IP. It is frightening to see the level of self satisfaction this people exude.... In a private company they would have been fired yesterday rather than today.

Asking a judicial body to tell the claimant what he should do in order to win his case is simply flabbergasting. Being faced by the non-admissibility of its request, wanting to reopen the discussion on admissibility is plainly laughable. Amateurism at his best....

On the other hand, it is not uncommon that in case of internal complaints it is not infrequent to amend the rules and their interpretation during the procedure, so as to insure that a decision adverse to a complainant is the necessary result of the procedure.

"Control Risk should be banned from the EPO, this group contributed to the present situation."It is interesting also to note that the "petitioner" did not hesitate to invoke German law, as VP 5 did recently. How can it be that in some cases national law is or should be fully applicable, and in other cases, cf. decision of the Dutch court it is not? I hope that VP5 in his great wisdom and intelligence will issue a communiqué explaining the varying applicability of national legislation.

What kind of counsellors this people have? On the other hand, looking at what VP5 has recently let out, there is no wonder that it ended up in a fiasco.

One can only be sad when looking what those pseudo managers/lawyers have made out of a well working and reputed institution. If the hidden agenda of the president was to let the EPO to go into the wall, he is very near to have achieved his aim.

[...]

The conclusion of this decision are the following:

The DC and the President were unable to present verifiable facts and substantiate the allegations made about the DG3 member. Accordingly, the house ban on December 5th 2014 was not justified and has to be considered as an abuse of power by the President. The President fooled the entire AC who agreed unanimously with the President’s proposal. The press releases in the Financieel Dagblad and other papers seriously damaged the reputation of the EPO, for which the President and some VPs are responsible. The EPC should be amended to limit the power of any President in order to prevent any such abuse of power in future. The AC should lift the immunity of the President and the VPs for proper justice to be executable w.r.t. libel suits and damage done to EPO staff. Control Risk should be banned from the EPO, this group contributed to the present situation. The president of the AC (JK) should step down because of his failure to properly supervise the whole process.

[...]

The EBA shall be praised for defending due process. The proceedings against the suspended member have exposed the manner in which BB has being operating since introduction of Circular 342.

All he needs to do is select an "irksome" staff member, give instructions to the IU and sit back and watch. The IU fabricates allegations on a "made to measure" basis, passes these on to a disciplinary committee for rubber-stamping and there you go ... In the rare case where disciplinary committee might dare to voice "dissenting opinion", BB simply ignore it secure in the knowledge that when the ILOAT deals with the case in the distance future he will be long retired in his villa on Corsica or wherever ...

He tries to pull the same stroke with the suspended board member and expects that everything will run as smoothly as in other cases ... It now looks like he miscalculated big time ...

Kudos to the EBA for refusal to fullfill the role of a rubber-stamper assigned to it by BB.

We can be grateful that miscalculation on the part of BB has finally exposed rotten system that was introduced on his watch with the tacit approval of the AC.

[...]

I think that the AC representative asked what they had to submit because they got surprised by the decision and had no clue how to go on...

Whatever reason, I think that just by putting the question, the AC representative touched the deepest point of the well...

"Dear Chairman, could you please be so kind to tell us how can we prove that Mr XCVV is guilty?"

Come on that sounds really like a joke...



In the coming week we are going to show that not only the judge has been subjected to this kind of treatment. More and more people, inside and outside the EPO, are quickly finding out that what they're dealing with is more like a bunch of gangsters, not public servants.

Recent Techrights' Posts

"Bad Shim Signature"; So 'Secure' That It Overrides Users' Preferences and Turns Itself Back on (Coercive Measure)
This was a few hours ago
We Covered UEFI 'Secure Boot' Scandals. The World Listened.
To hell with UEFI 'secure boot'
Fake News With Fake Numbers About Microsoft
"This is what happens when the world's economy is governed by sick old men"
Slopwatch: "Google News" is Fast Becoming a Mashup of Slopfarms, Linux Journal ("LJ") is a Dump of LLM Slop
Well done, Google News. Google itself can flourish as a slopfarm mashup.
Torturing Users Who Just Want to Run GNU/Linux on Their Own PC
"Linux does not want to install"
European Authorities, Already Bribed and Infiltrated by Microsoft, Won't Help You Find BigBlueButton, Jami, Ring, and Jitsi
Because they're paid by Microsoft and are Microsoft 'addicts' themselves
Moving From Content Management Systems (CMSs) to Static Site Generators (SSGs) Saves You Time, Makes You a Lot More Productive
try to reduce the cost (financial and computational) of running your site
Leak: European Patent Office (EPO) is Now Attacking Amicale Clubs
corruption has become the norm and scientists are robbed of any dignity
Oracle Fraud (or Defrauding Shareholders)
"the obvious [lie] is that watts are (wasted) electricity [and] and FLOPS are computing capacity"
 
Links 14/09/2025: US "Economy Sagging", "Michigan Economy Wobbles From Tariffs"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/09/2025: Minimalist Snippet Manager and Omarchy Linux
Links for the day
The Face of the Digital Far Right: Microsoft Lunduke
Microsoft Lunduke is an online extremist that belongs to and panders to the far right
20 Years Later and Academia Isn't the Same
"I never dreamed of being a professor"
'Cancel Culture' by the Right: Microsoft Lunduke Contacts People's Employers Trying to Get Them Fired
Microsoft Lunduke panders to extremists online
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 13, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 13, 2025
Microsoft is Rapidly Dropped From Web Servers, Shows Survey
Microsoft lost about 8% "market share" in just 3 months
Many GNU/Linux Users Report MOK (Machine Owner Key) Issues in Recent Days
many people don't report this online and never post in Reddit
Links 13/09/2025: Escalations in East Europe and POTUS’ Health Cover-Up
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/09/2025: Lagrange Turns 5 and Lagrange 1.19.2 Released
Links for the day
Microsoft Inside Your Linux: "Security vulnerability that allowed an attacker to bypass UEFI Secure Boot."
2 hours ago
A New Low for "Linux Journal": Promoting MICROSOFT WINDOWS Using LLM Slop
They've just jumped the shark entirely
The Register MS Still Takes Money to Hype Up "AI" in Articles by Microsoft Resellers With the Term "AI" 30+ Times in Them
Notice how many times they mention "AI"
The Apache Logo News is VERY Old, Racists and 'Anti-Woke' Bigots Look for Something to Incite Other Bigots With
Nothing to see here, move along
Linux Mint 9/11: "4th One Today..." (in Reddit)
Remember that not everyone having an issue reports it to social control media like Reddit
Nepal Will Fall Without a Single Shot Fired, Thanks to Social Control Media
Or very few shots (by the authorities)
European Corruption in the European Patent Office (EPO) Targets Culture
"In reality, the project includes a new “legal instrument” shifting administrative burden and liability on EPO staff while creating new uncertainty and externalising Amicale activities."
UEFI Secure Boot Failing, as Expected for Nearly 15 Years Already (Techrights Said This Since 2012)
in the media
Debian 9/11
people report this issue
Gemini and Web Links 13/09/2025: MElon's Slop Grift and "Autonomous Trains"
Links for the day
Pursuing Peace Through Violence
You cannot "see" a person's mind, until the mouth opens
Can We Please Stop Celebrating Shooters?
"An important point to hammer on is that CoCs were never intended for uniform or symmetric application"
Geminispace is Growing Faster in 2025 Than It Did in 2024
What matters is that corporations haven't ruined it and LLM slop is extremely rare
Links 13/09/2025: China Punishes for 'Negative' Posts, US Police Unable to Find Shooter
Links for the day
Who's the Mystery Financier of SLAPP Against Techrights and Is That a Millionaire/Billionaire?
Whose idea was it to fund meritless lawsuits against my wife and I?
Slopwatch: Slow Slop Day
This distracts from or may take traffic away from the original articles, actually written by actual people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 12, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 12, 2025
CoC Gone Wrong: Celebrating Murder OK, Complaining About the Celebration Gets You Banned
Hopefully the NixOS Foundation will have a word with (maybe replace) the moderator/s
Gemini Links 12/09/2025: Familiarity and Secondary Dominants
Links for the day
Explaining (in Length and Depth) the Damage Matthew Garrett Did to Linux and to GNU/Linux Users
no matter how many threats we receive
Links 12/09/2025: "Bad Reviews" as Extortion Weapon, "Free Speech At Risk in America’s Schools" According to ACLU
Links for the day
Only One Speaker Does Not Do Sharecropping for MElon (in X.com)
The man who puts principles before PR/optics
The Mind of the 'Hulk Hogan of UEFI'
in a nutshell
A Day After "UEFI 9/11": UEFI Secure Boot Bypass
In the news today (right now), as published in the past few hours
Links 12/09/2025: Slop Code as Liability, Microsoft Outlook Down for Many
Links for the day
It's Still Not to Late to Turn Off "Secure Boot"
If people reboot their PC or server today, and it relies on "Secure Boot" on Sept. 12 or later, then depending on the firmware there may be trouble ahead
Links 12/09/2025: Shira Perlmutter is Back, “Software Per Se” Patent Rejections in In re McFadden
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linux Plagiarism, Slopfarms Still Infesting Google News, Many Images Are Fake
Google is promoting plagiarism
"This Morning Might Turn Out to be an Interesting One for System Admins Who Haven't Updated Their Devices' Secure Boot Certificate" (If They Reboot)
Who asked for this anyway?
Gemini Links 12/09/2025: Metric System, Dumping Windows, and Software Architecture is Dead
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 11, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 11, 2025