MONTHS after we covered the Spanish scandals [1, 2, 3] which implicate an EPO Vice-President all we find in Spanish-speaking media is puff pieces about the EPO, generated after Battistelli had visited Latin America, shook some hands, signed some papers, then left back to his castle in Munich (a castle from which workers escape through the windows to their death, due to improper management, based on the staff union).

"Tell them more about how the EPO's 'gestapo' treats a Spanish union leader, causing him to have nervous breakdowns and actively forbidding him from saying anything about what's happening."Another action (a protest in this case, not yet a strike) against the EPO's management is going to take place less than a week from now. Details in SUEPO's public site were published yesterday as follows: "On 17 February the so-called Board 28 (officially: "Board of the Administrative Council") will have its second meeting of the year. The Board 28 is the ultra-secretive think-tank of the Administrative Council. SUEPO invites all staff to demonstrate in front of the Isar building, starting from 12.30h.

"With the demonstration we want to appeal to the members of the Board 28 to reflect on the reforms unilaterally imposed on staff by Mr Battistelli, almost all of which breach European legal and democratic norms, and in many cases violate fundamental rights."

"Ask delegates who are at the Council to dig into the salary of Battistelli, which oddly enough remains a closely-guarded secret (his predecessor did disclose hers)."They seem to be targeting delegates which any of our readers in Europe (not just EPO staff) can contact. Tell them more about how the EPO's 'gestapo' [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] treats a Spanish union leader, causing him to have nervous breakdowns and actively forbidding him from saying anything about what's happening. Ask delegates who are at the Council to dig into the salary of Battistelli, which oddly enough remains a closely-guarded secret (his predecessor did disclose hers).

One important development that we noticed yesterday is that Spain may be increasingly giving EPO management the finger, even at a national level. This is important because Spain is a big country. There are many patent applicants coming from Spain, not to mention patent examiners. Spain does not need the UPC regime. It openly opposed it even half a decade ago when it was referred to as EU Patent, not UPC (the name of the unwanted 'reform' keeps changing over time, maybe in an effort to dodge negative publicity). Things are fine as they are. Spain has the resources to manage a patent office and patent courts, so Spain has antagonised the UPC several times in the past. The EU/EPO tried blackmailing Spain into the UPC, but such moves are more likely to alienate, not accomplish anything. Spain did not change its position after such blackmail and based on this new interview with WIPR, Spain’s IPO head remains consistent and strong. To quote the article: "The director general of Spain’s Patent and Trademark Office has supported the government’s decision to opt out of the unitary patent and said that EU member states will be forced to reflect on the importance of the Spanish language and technology.

"One important development that we noticed yesterday is that Spain may be increasingly giving EPO management the finger, even at a national level.""Speaking to WIPR, Patricia Garcia-Escudero said she stood by the government’s decision to not participate in the patent and the concurrent Unified Patent Court (UPC).

"Last year, the Court of Justice of the European Union ended Spain’s legal challenge to the UPC Agreement.

"The bone of contention was the exclusion of Spanish as an official language of the UPC, which Spain described as discriminatory. The official languages are English, French and German.

"“Spanish is one of the most spoken languages in the world, and it is widely used on the internet. So we wanted them to consider Spanish as an official language of the UPC,” Garcia-Escudero said."

"More countries should follow Spain's lead and defend Europe from patent trolls, software patents, and massive foreign corporations that wish to sue a lot of European SMEs (in many countries) in one fell swoop."For the Spanish people and for Spain’s IPO head this is the right thing to do given the mistreatment of Spain and Spanish people at the EPO (see in Spanish: "A La Oficina Europea de Patentes (OEP) no le gusta el Español, Así que PorQué los EspaÅ„oles la Toleran?"), not to mention the snubbing of the Spanish language -- a subject that we repeatedly covered here before.

More countries should follow Spain's lead and defend Europe from patent trolls, software patents, and massive foreign corporations that wish to sue a lot of European SMEs (in many countries) in one fell swoop. That's what the UPC is practically for (ignore the EPO's publicity stunts and misleading UPC marketing from patent lawyers who profit from patent feuds). ⬆

"The day that the software sector forms a clear front against software patents, as pharma does for a unitary patent system… will be the day our cause comes close to winning." —Pieter Hintjens (former FFII President), Fosdem07 Interview