Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Management Needs to Finally Recognise That It Itself is the Issue, Not the Staff or the Unions

"If all I say is "I'm in favor of freedom", I have not really tackled the difficult issue, because it's very easy to say: "I stand for freedom", even Bush says he stands for freedom, and Bush doesn't even recognize freedom after he's crushed it."

--Richard Stallman



Summary: A showing of dissent even from the representatives whom the EPO tightly controls and why the latest union-busting goes a lot further than most people realise

OUR previous post presented a new document and provided a first glimpse at the true mess inside the EPO, where not only SUEPO but also the Staff Committee has concerns. There is also FFPE-EPO, which yesterday expressed solidarity for SUEPO in its official statement. Here is the same document in all languages (much larger file).

One might rightly ask, who are in this committee anyway? Well, it is not a closely-guarded secret, so here is who's involved. Everyone in the EPO's management knows them and in case there will ever be some altercation (like EPO managers trying to punish or intimidate representatives), we will be better at identifying possible motivations, causes, ulterior motives etc.

Staff Committee people



These people too will probably need protection at some stage, judging by the modus operandi of Team Battistelli.

Here is the complete opening, focusing on the English version/text of the document (more languages are in the original PDF):

European Patent Office

Central Staff Committee

24.06.2015 scl527Ocp — 0.2.1/2.2/2.3

Questions on the EPO



A discussion paper on the independence of the departments in DG1



Dear Colleagues,

A structural reform of the Boards of Appeal is currently under discussion. This will be a main topic on one of the next Council meetings. The reform addresses the independence of the Boards. Independence is an indispensable requirement for legal certainty with regard to the decisions taken by the members of the Boards, but also by the examiners in DG1.

The annexed documents (English, French and German versions of the discussion paper) shall give further input to the discussion from another point of view. Some daily life situations of examiners in DG1 are reflected in a questionnaire. Many difficulties result from the hierarchical position of examiners within DG1.

As a huge part of EPO staff is allocated to other DGs than DG1 and DG3, the documents contain some background information on the current structure of DG1. This should help to increase mutual understanding of all EPO staff in all DGs. We.would like to encourage everybody to discuss the issues addressed therein with her/his colleagues and superiors.

We are interested in your feedback, which can be sent to centralstcom@epo.org or to your preferred staff representative. We intend to publish a follow-up document so as to summarize your comments and to provide the administration with suitable proposals.

The Central Staff Committee


There are nearly 60 more pages in the original PDF. Please note that the Central Staff Committee uses epo.org addresses, which, considering the mass surveillance inside the EPO (going as far as keyloggers and hidden cameras), very much limits one's ability to independently operate. It's a farcical body with no real, effective independence or autonomy. SUEPO overcame this issue by using its own domain, suepo.org (EPO management now deletes or blocks E-mail from that domain, allegedly since 2013).

"Please note that the Central Staff Committee uses epo.org addresses, which, considering the mass surveillance inside the EPO (going as far as keyloggers and hidden cameras), very much limits one's ability to independently operate."On another subject, let's explain the severity of this whole situation. It is becoming ever more serious right now. It not only affects SUEPO. The suspension of the staff representatives is a real bombshell and there are many actions planned as a result (we have seen some details, but won't publicly divulge them at this point).

Some of the details began to reach us with urgency as people inside the EPO were in panic. The EPO's management too is in panic, but for different reasons. We were told the names of the parties involved and the shocking treatment of people at The Hague. We couldn't reveal the names of the parties at the time, but both the Munich and The Hague staff committees later published the names of the parties (right before the scandal took the blogosphere by storm).

"The staff representation has NINE members, and FIVE of these have been suspended and/or "investigated"."We are revealing the names not because we disregard privacy because they're essential for understanding of just how terrible the EPO management became. Jesús Areso and Laurent Prunie can both be seen above, under The Hague. They were among those whom EPO managers (or their Stasi-esque unit) attacked. Malika Weaver and Brumme (under Munich) were also attacked. So was Michels (under Vienna). Why is this important?

The above image adds one piece of information which completes the picture which hasn't been mentioned elsewhere to our knowledge:

The staff representation has NINE members, and FIVE of these have been suspended and/or "investigated". That's more than half! It's only a matter of time until they figure out something for crushing the remaining four active members.

"We kindly ask readers to remember that these members were elected despite the rotten voting system unilaterally imposed by Battistelli in an attempt to sabotage the staff representation."One can see for oneself the composition of the staff representation above.

We kindly ask readers to remember that these members were elected despite the rotten voting system unilaterally imposed by Battistelli in an attempt to sabotage the staff representation. We have covered this in passing already.

Who would even be brave enough to be a staff representative right now? Mr. Battistelli has achieved what even Vladimir Putin could not achieve. Battistelli made himself the Sun King.

Recent Techrights' Posts

This is the Man Who's Attacking Linus Torvalds et al in "a Disease" (Social Control Media)
One thing that Richard M. Stallman and Torvalds can agree on is that Social Control Media should be avoided
Unlike GAFAM, Free Software Serves You, It Does Not Serve Governments and MElons (Overlapping Forces)
Tired of oligarchy controlling your life through gadgets and "apps"?
When It Comes to Social Control Media, Linus Torvalds is Channeling Techrights
GAFAM workers know exactly who to aim at
New EPO Paper: Promoting (Rewarding) People Who Grant Many Illegal European Patents to Make More Money (at Europeans' Expense) While Patent Courts in the EU Are Themselves Illegal
now the coup is sort of complete and even the "courts" are part of the corruption
Slopwatch: Carnival of LLM Slop and FUD Spewed by Bots, Pasted in by MaKenna Hensley and Day
Welcome to the Web in 2025. Articles about "Linux", "Security", and the Web (e.g. "Firefox") are fake.
Links 07/02/2025: Amazon’s Stock Collapses and US Government Being Dismantled (Still)
Links for the day
 
Microsoft Windows Falls to 12% in Myanmar
Remember that Microsoft is virtually 0% in mobile
Gemini Links 08/02/2025: "Thought Leaders" and Returns to Gemini Protocol
Links for the day
Links 08/02/2025: MElon Coup, Mass Layoffs at Facebook, and PlayStation Network Down
Links for the day
On Wars Against Founders
We need to insist that founders remain
Links 08/02/2025: News Corp Admits Traffic Declines, Wildlife Trafficking Tackled
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/02/2025: Lamp and Notions
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 07, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, February 07, 2025
Gemini Links 07/02/2025: Mid-level Details and Simple Code
Links for the day
Links 07/02/2025: US 'Demolition Crew', e-ID Loopholes, and Sanctions
Links for the day
Professor Eben Moglen on How Social Control Media Metabolises Humans and Constrains Freedom of Thought
Nothing of value would be lost if all these data-harvesting giants (profiling people) vanished overnight
Social Control Media is Narcissism
Nowadays there's a lot more literature and even press coverage explaining the harms of Social Control Media
Debian Left Twitter (MElon "X"), We Think the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Should Do the Same
What would the FSF really lose if it stopped posting there?
statCounter Sees GNU/Linux Share Doubling in China Over the Past Year
It'll be interesting to see what data in the coming months shows
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 06, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, February 06, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Confirms Next Week's Talk in Europe
He gave at least 2 talks in Europe last month
Nationalism As A Service (NaaS) by Microsoft Azure, Gutting the US Government for Profit
Will Microsoft be receiving bailouts as a reward for all this?
Rumours of IBM Layoffs Apparently Confirmed Yesterday, IBM Canada Consulting Impacted (as Rumoured)
when IBM has layoffs we must also read it as Red Hat layoffs
Tons of Anti-Linux 'Articles' Published by Bots (LLMs), Maybe Microsoft's
Upon closer inspection, all this FUD turned out to be LLM garbage
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Voicemail Sucks and Night of Lights
Links for the day
Ubuntu Desktop Director of Engineering Has Only One Blog Post. It Promotes Microsoft Windows.
Remember that even 15 years ago (more or less, maybe 16 years ago) Canonical appointed a a 'former' Microsoft manager (Spencer) to lead Ubuntu on the desktop
Links 06/02/2025: YouTube Takedowns Out of Control, 'DOGE' Breaking Laws
Links for the day
IBM Red Hat on "era of cloud computing", pushing "hey hi" (AI) hype in Microsoft Azure
LLM slop might actually be more benign than Microsoft promotion
Corruption and Rule-Breaking Prevail at the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest Institution
The law does not really exist at the EPO; it can be perceived as merely a "recommendation"
statCounter: More Countries Where Windows is Around 1% "Market Share" (People Have Moved to Android/Linux)
in some nations Windows is already 1% or less
404 Media Says "Workers at NASA Told to Drop Everything to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites" But There's Also Accessibility in the Firing Line
In the case of abandoning accessibility, everyone stands to be hurt and proprietary software can be brought in to replace standards
When BetaNews Writes Real Articles About "Linux" They Promote Windows
The Web is in a bad state. We need to at least try to correct this.
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Cynicism and "Real Magic on the C64"
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: New Sanctions, Layoffs, and Executive Orders
Links for the day
Distros and Desktop Environments, Devices
GNU/Linux focused
New Rumours of IBM Layoffs in 2025, IBM Consulting Still Struggles, Based on Management
"Hey hi" (AI) has been a common excuse for business failure
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 05, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 05, 2025