THE harder the staff pushes, the harder the management pushes too, resorting even to attack pieces in the press. We are now seeing anonymous comments in support of EPO management, repeating the EPO's own talking points which we often find in the media (corporate press).
"We are now seeing anonymous comments in support of EPO management, repeating the EPO’s own talking points which we often find in the media (corporate press)."We already know that the EPO is actively distorting media coverage. In the face of protests in Munich (not to be mistaken for other Munich protests), as well as the Dutch protest (last Tuesday), the people who are in favour of the management, apathetic or too afraid to show up in protests will soon be in the minority! Despite the horrible threats and the grave dangers (to one's career plus potential lawsuits), people are still defecting -- publicly -- to SUEPO et al.
We don't typically write much on a Sunday, but we have decided that it's time to write some more articles about the EPO, simply because the AstroTurfing (or what looks like it) has kicked into high gear today (on a Sunday!). FTI Consulting-coordinated propaganda (US-based) or something more innocent?
"Despite the horrible threats and the grave dangers (to one's career plus potential lawsuits), people are still defecting -- publicly -- to SUEPO et al."We can't tell for sure, but we can make informed guesses. The claims of EPO staff are under an apparent AstroTurfing attack right now -- one without ethical boundaries. We named some aspects of the current media strategy in previous posts of ours (the latest being accusing the whistleblowers of serious crimes).
Naming the "Investigation Unit (IU) or the ControlRisks people," one person responds to anonymous provocation by saying: "If you do not know what that means, ask you friend. Ask him also if he knows why more than 2000 people inclusive directors were protesting in front of the Isar-building."
We haven't yet found any media report about this massive protest. Remember that one of the PR strategies is to actively suppress reports about particular events. We thoroughly checked all the English-speaking media on Friday, Saturday, and earlier today. We even checked some of Munich's Sunday papers or sites. Assuming these numbers are correct, no doubt we're seeing all-time highs here. There is no head count because if people in attendance identify themselves, they'll risk losing their job.
"We haven't yet found any media report about this massive protest."Useful reminder to our readers: the EPO now spends, on average, €2444 per day on reputation laundering alone. Put another way, as this new comment put it, "the trolls are back ! 73000 EUR / months spent in whitewashing by the EPO thanks to applicants' money..."
We have amassed nearly 40,000 comments at Techrights, but there are not many Internet trolls in Techrights (not so much spam, either) because a quick registration is needed. It helps weed out the noise and keep a higher signal.
“Suddenly a lot of comments pro-management are appearing at the IPKat," told us one person a couple of hours ago. "The media strategy is working.”
"Having read all the comments in this thread (nearly 40 of them at the time of writing), we can reaffirm that there’s some kind of whitewash going on there."As this one comment put it, "any attempts to do a staff survey are blocked by the management as well as any attempts to initiate an external audit or external investigations about what's going on at the EPO (except spying on staff by companies such as "Control Risks", of course)."
We don't want to quote the provocation or AstroTurfing, so instead we'll quote this one epic response to it.
A surfer in the President's wash says...
@Sybella
“There will be no whitewash in the White House.”
Richard M. Nixon
epo.org (think before you click)
"Remember that the EPO spends €880,000 distorting the media in just one year."Also consider what looks like media back-rubbing between IAM and EPO, which pays some of IAM's writers. Here is IAM congratulating EPO for the EPO to later cite IAM as 'evidence'. Source: epo.org (think carefully before you click)
Does it mean that IAM is just a mouthpiece? No, it just means that IAM has little credibility on EPO-related matters, for reasons we explained here repeatedly in the past.
"That €880,000 budget does go somewhere and it gets spent achieving the objectives (reputation laundering) one way or another."Yesterday we joked that it would be nice to have a leaked document template like “Dear Joff Wild … If… that would be great … Love, Benoit” (hypothetical joke of course).
Here in Techrights we have not asked for money and we have no conflicts of interest. There are still some decent news sites out there, such as WIPR and IP Watch (even though sometimes even IP Watch produces puff pieces for the EPO, piggybacking beer for PR).
"Reports of AstroTurfing help paralyse the AstroTurfing."Last but not least, we kindly ask readers to inform us if they see evidence of likely EPO AstroTurfing, either in the media or in comments. That €880,000 budget does go somewhere and it gets spent achieving the objectives (reputation laundering) one way or another. Reports of AstroTurfing help paralyse the AstroTurfing. I know this based on experience covering Microsoft AstroTurfing for many years, having researched their many pertinent PR agencies (some of the prominent ones include comment AstroTurfing). ⬆
“In the United States, for example, about one sixth of the gross national product, over a trillion dollars per year, is devoted to marketing. Marketing is manipulation and deceit.”