Bonum Certa Men Certa

European Patent Office and Human Rights Violations: Article Translation Into English Reveals Upcoming Lawsuit Against the EPO Over Institutional Harassment

European Patent Office and Human Rights Violations



Summary: Liesbeth Zegveld, a lawyer who represents dismissed union leaders and also a suspended judge, declares intent to launch legal action against the European Patent Office

THE EPO's management has received a lot of negative publicity, which is very much deserved.



This one 4-page article [PDF] about the EPO (“EOB: Bastion van tirannie en angst” from Praktijkblad Ondernemingsraad) was published a few days ago. A person from the Netherlands, Marco, kindly translated this for us (several people offered help, but Marco was first). "I applaud your endeavor," he wrote. "Feel free to use my small contribution as you see fit."

Having read it fully and highlighted in yellow bits that are new to most readers, we now present the full thing as text. Marco asked us to "note that this was published some months ago, and the article also mentions a future meeting which has since then occurred."

Institutional bullying and institutional harassment are going to cause turmoil. There is legal action from SUEPO apparently; that's the first time we really learn about such plans. Details below.

Human rights violations by the European Patent Office

'Bastion of fear and tyranny'



Employee participation is a mockery, critical trade unionists are made redundant, multiple suicides. The atmosphere at the European Patent Office has been severely poisoned. The director considers himself above human rights.

'Employees of the European Patent Office work in a bastion of fear and tyranny,' says an anonymous source of the staff representation (PVT) of the Rijswijk establishment (2,700 employees) of the European Patent Office (EPO). The organisation, also with offices in Berlin, Munich and Vienna, is responsible for protecting the rights of inventors in the European Union. Our source would rather have his name not mentioned. 'Because,' he stresses, 'talking to the outside world about internal affairs could cost you your job. CEO Benoît Battistelli expects absolute loyalty.'

'Whether we have a say? Do not make me laugh. The staff representation is only consulted to say yes or no to a document. The management board doesn't appreciate informed opinions or alternative proposals of the PVT.' 'The management also decides whether we can meet with our members. For that, we need to apply three days in advance and hand in a list of topics.' 'Moreover, sending an e-mail to all employees is forbidden. When sending to more than fifty email addresses the system automatically blocks the message.' 'Outspoken employees are not appreciated and people are not treated as human beings. An all-time low was when a colleague jumped from the seventh floor in Rijswijk during 2013.'

That is not the only suicide, another member of the Rijswijk branch ended his life on the last day of his vacation. Moreover, the trade union Suepo alarmed the EPO mid-2015 regarding the suicides of three employees of the head office in Munich. That makes a total of five cases of suicide in three years, according to the union because of poisonous working conditions.

Sun King

[Due to the legal immunity of EPO, Battistelli can behave like a "Sun King with an own court ']

As an intergovernmental organisation, formed by 38 supervisional member states, the EPO enjoys legal immunity. Because of this legal immunity, it can largely ignore national legislation and EU laws in countries where EPO offices are located. Precisely therein lies, according to the prevailing view among employees, largely the cause of the "reign of terror" of the French CEO Battistelli: 'He can simply continue his behavior as "Sun King with an own court".'

In 2015, the court in The Hague ruled that the EPO violates human rights in a case that lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld, specialized in human rights, filed on behalf of Suepo. The court ruled that the hindrance of the union in its work outweighs its legal immunity.

'That the EPO has appealed against that judgment,' Zegveld says, 'illustrates once more the arrogance of the organization.' 'It considers itself above the law and proceeds to abusing its legal immunity. I have not previously had a case with such an aggressive opponent.'

Since the Hague judgment, Zegveld observes a tougher stance from Battistelli against directors of Suepo, who are often also active as EPO employees. Two of them have been told to resign. Amongst them the Dutch president of the union Elizabeth Hardon, whose pension has been cut by 20 percent, and the treasurer of the association. Hardon has now found herself to be the subject of an internal investigation, which is blatantly against the rules of the EPO. Five other active union members, of whom three in Rijswijk, have been suspended pending an upcoming investigation. One of them has also been put back eight steps in salary.

Witch Hunt

Zegveld: 'This is a witch hunt to silence the union and critical employees. They are addressed on dubious trivialities likely not serious enough to have someone dismissed or his pension reduced.' Battistelli defended himself in the Financieele Dagblad in which he stated that there is an 'orchestrated campaign' to destabilize the organization. 'That purely trade union and staff representatives are investigated is "pure coincidence".'

Apart from the dismissal of trade union officials Zegveld is preparing a lawsuit against the EPO for harassment. 'As a union official and employee of the EPO, according to Battistelli's guidelines, you cannot tell your own members that they are being investigated. While it is the task of the union to be a critical voice and to inform members.'

'If there is an investigation against you,' agrees our anonymous source at the PVT, 'you may not inform a colleague. So you limit yourself to: "I was away and I may not tell you why". Then your colleague knows enough. That, while the director has the right to disclose to the media that there are running investigations against trade unionists.'

Subjects investigated by the commission of disciplinary investigation have a right to assistance by a member of the PVT. 'During the hearing, employees are often confronted with acts they had nothing to do with. Their guilt is already a foregone conclusion. "Stasi Practices," according to colleagues from Eastern Europe working at the EPO.'

Increased Workload

'The staff of the EPO,' continues the anonymous trade union member, 'are highly educated people who are frustrated that they get not to decide the working conditions.' 'The top of the EPO wants to promote more competition between employees. They have implemented a new remuneration system. Your supervisor now determines what salary increase you will get; he can also unilaterally change employment conditions.' 'Meanwhile your supervisor will often overload you with mountains of work. The workload in some units has increased by 30 percent. Of course, now many go into early retirement, or call in sick. Those who call in sick, and take a walk or ride a the bike are in violation and risk disciplinary action.' 'The human resource department, which supposedly should ensure reintegration, is itself understaffed and overworked. Preventive measures against absenteeism are modest compared with repressive sanctions imposed.' 'Working conditions are a hard topic to address. The PVT tries to, but the standard response is often that such a topic should be discussed "in a different context," at the central level. Then you never hear anything about it anymore.'

A proposal by the PVT for a staff risk assessment was buried by the EPO. The Dutch labour inspectorate is not allowed to enter the building because of the legal immunity of the EPO. 'The PVT also called for an investigation into a connection between the working environment and suicides. But the management has never responded to that.' Battistelli replied in an interview with the NRC Handelsblad, and describes the suicides as "personal tragedies without evidence of a relationship with the agency." The labour inspectorate says it knows of the complaints via the media and other sources. 'But we lack the powers to act,' according to a spokesman. 'We may not enter the EPO like we may not enter an embassy. We give no judgment on possible wrongdoing. After all, we cannot investigate.' Indeed, no investigation of how an employee on Dutch territory chose to to jump out of a deadly trap from the seventh floor during working hours.

Protest

However, the patent examiners may organize demonstrations on Dutch territory. And at the end of January in Rijswijk, they massively chose to do so in protest against the dismissal of two colleagues because of their union activities and to restore a third employee to his former position. Member of Parliament John Kerstens walked amongst the demonstrators and filed a motion in which he asked the cabinet "to ensure normal working conditions and respect for human rights of workers." State Secretary Martijn van Dam then announced an "independent research" on the working conditions at the EPO.

'The government has remarkably long stayed aloof regarding the patent office,' notes Liesbeth Zegveld. 'But it is responsible that on its territory human rights are respected. The Dutch state can, if no action is taken, expect an indictment by Suepo.' 'On the other hand, I also noticed that the cabinet is growing impatient with the continuing full scale human rights violations by the EPO, such as the right to collective bargaining, right to assembly, and the right to freedom of expression.' 'Of course, this apart from the fact that individual rights such as work and pensions are harmed and workers are apparently driven to suicide.'

The Dane Chairman Jesper Kongstad of the Administrative Council of the patent organization has asked the 38 participating countries to have the disciplinary actions by the EPO investigated by an independent commission. Battistelli rejected the proposal immediately. However, it seems unlikely that the EPO countries will vote against the proposal by Kongstad during its mid-March meeting. In which case, it seems that the days of Battistelli are numbered.

The staff representation meanwhile remains active, awaiting better times. 'The whole situation should normalize naturally, as in every democratic country. The PVT could, of course, shut itself down due to current lack of participation. But then it immediately completely loses the communication with, and the feedback of, the supporters. 'Now the PVT can still collect files and help out employees. The PVT may also discretely publish on the intranet; if you click five, six times you will find their pages.' 'Many things that the PVT does are also tasks of the human resource department. But they see the staff and their representatives as the enemy. No doubt since the head of the department is an appointed personal friend of Battistelli.'


The burden of work is a subject addressed in the following bit of text, sent to us not too long ago:

Patent Administration under pressure

Examiners are not the only ones whom the Office thinks it can mostly replace by computers: the same applies – for a long time already – to formalities officers. While the number of applications keeps going up, the number of formalities officers (but not the number of managers) keeps going down. The promised IT support is not making up for the difference. On the contrary: the continuous changes in the procedures and in the programs are making things worse for staff. And with the introduction of the “hubs” staff in Patent Administration are now left to themselves to sort out how to distribute too much work among too few people. The resulting stress is not good for staff health. To counter the effect, in Patent Administration a high “presence at work” remains a prerequisite for a bonus. There is another problem coming up. The recruitment stop for Patent Administration has predictably led to aging of the existing population, more so since in the initial phase the Office also let go of younger recruits who had been hired on contract. With the atmosphere in the Office deteriorating older colleagues who can afford to do so retire. The work in Patent Administration is complex and very diverse. Whereas novelty, inventive step and sufficiency of disclosure remain the same throughout search, examination and opposition, the administrative procedures are very different. The same applies for PCT, versus EP and soon the unitary patent. No single formalities officer can know it all: the total knowledge is spread over a considerable number of people. If the Office doesn’t start recruiting and training new formalities officers soon the current brain-drain may result in knowledge being lost.


This serves to reaffirm if not confirm what we already heard from other sources. Basically, the ongoing brain drain [1, 2, 3, 4] and inability to recruit replacements quickly enough (especially with the damaged reputation of the EPO) leaves people in Patent Administration overworked. Some people have approached us privately to highlight serious administrative issues from the customer's side. People are far from happy (to say the least!) with the service and if only Battistelli treated his staff with respect and dignity, all this mess would not be the new reality at the Office. Battistelli has truly destroyed the EPO by making the atmosphere poisonous.

Recent Techrights' Posts

YouTube is a Spamfarm, Slopfarm, and Clickfarm (a Lot of Numbers There Are Fake)
Those who don't fake look unpopular and unimportant
Misinformation is Not Intelligence
It's low-grade plagiarism and it fails to show any signs of intelligence
'Tech' Gimmicks Are for Advertising, Not for Usability
In the case of Microsoft, they latched onto slop
 
They Try to Lecture Us on Ethics
They even removed "master" from Microsoft GitHub
The Future of the Web is One Rendering Engine or 'Flavours' of Chrome
The future of the Web does not look bright at all
Best Sites Are Not Optimised for Any Browser, They Work Equally Well With All of Them
Red Hat (IBM) is making rubbish sites
We Don't Do JavaScript and Pages Are Small
Thankfully Gemini Protocol has nothing like JavaScript
'Tech' is Not Technology
Some people use terms like 'Old Tech'
IBM's Debt Rose by Almost 10 Billion Dollars in the Past 6 Months Alone
The "hey hi" circus is coming to an end
Yes, Master
Gaslighting by actual racists
Microsoft Bribes and Buys Politicians to Tell Europe What to Do About Free Software (Which It's Attacking)
Microsoft: we speak for the thing that we are attacking! Follow the money...
Making Backups Quickly and Reliably
Backups are imperative, more so in an age of uncertainty, unpredictable weather, and worsening standards (quality of products going down while prices go up)
Techrights Investigation: Estimating the Point in Time LinuxIac Turned Into LLM Slop (Part of the Time)
Bobby Borisov got lazy
10th Month, Ten Weeks From Now, at Ten AM
In Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 24, 2025
A Nadella Memo Distracts From Microsoft's Cheapening Of the Workforce
Right now the "MSM" (mainstream media) is flooded/overwhelmed by garbage pieces that relay lies for Nadella
Vanishing Faces of GNU/Linux
Free software projects do not depend on any one person or company to still exist
Microsoft Says It Lost 400 Million Windows Users, Now It's Waiting for GNU/Linux to Stop Booting on 'Old' PCs
When it comes to Windows, Microsoft is fully aware of the issue and statements it made earlier this summer suggest it lost 400 million Windows users
Slopwatch: LinuxTechLab, linuxsecurity.com, LinuxIac, and More
Also: The Register's Microsoft agenda (new editor)
Gemini Links 25/07/2025: Gemtext Aware Titan Editor and Gemini Protocol Comeback
Links for the day
Links 24/07/2025: Convicted Felon Quits UNESCO, "Vibe Coding Goes Wrong", and Signalgate Gets Worse
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/07/2025: Forgejo Woes and Smolnet Directory Week
Links for the day
Links 24/07/2025: Storage Tapes Still Kicking, Windows TCO 'on Steroids' (Microsoft-Induced Catastrophes)
Links for the day
Bobby Borisov (LinuxIac) Has Apparently Begun Experimenting With LLM Slop, So We Cannot Trust LinuxIac Anymore
So did LinuxIac become a slopfarm? Maybe not yet, but it's getting there
Informa TechTarget's ITProToday is Becoming a Slopfarm Generated by Microsoft Chatbots
Busted.
BetaNews Sacked Brian Fagioli and Deleted His Comments, But He Still Tries to Use the "BetaNews" Brand for Self-Affirmation
Fagioli takes the work of other people
[Meme] Hard to Be a Better Person?
Sooner or later they'll realise that for each pound I spend they need to spend about 1,000 times more
The LLM Con Artists Are Highly Destructive
Who will ever be held accountable for this scam?
Too Bribed by Microsoft to Move to Free Software?
Microsoft lies and Microsoft bribery (in politics)
New US Editor for The Register is a Microsoft Booster
"Avram Piltch has served as US editor for The Register since July 2025."
Microsoft Hiring European Politicians is Another Form of Bribery; There Should be a European Investigation
When Microsoft bribed people in Europe for OOXML (there's no denying this!) a European government delegate said that Microsoft operated like a cult
Reda Demanded That FSF Removes Its Founder, Now Reda Works Directly for Microsoft
A sellout and a traitor, first working for GAFAM, now Microsoft
PCLinuxOS is Raising Money to Support Development After Fire Incident at the Host
PCLinuxOS has not had announcements lately
Speed of the Site Should be Better Now
The "bot attacks" impact the speed of the sister site too
Getting More From AnalogNowhere
Recently we used many images from AnalogNowhere
Microsoft, Microsofters and 'Secure' Boot Shills Already Storming the LWN Report About Expiring Certificate, Shooting the Messenger
LWN has clearly stuck a nerve
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Disable "Secure" Boot Today (the Only Better Time to Do So Was Yesterday)
Don't trust anything Red Hat tells you about security
Links 23/07/2025: Windows Killed Company After 150+ Years, US Government Mimics Russia's Attacks on the Media
Links for the day
Freedom Generally Wins at the End, History Shows (But It's Constantly Attacked, Too)
At the moment people realise "Linux" (e.g. Android) isn't enough to guarantee any freedoms
Over 3 Months Later Brett Wilson LLP Still Unable to Recruit a Media Lawyer?
"Immediate start", but not found... still unfilled
“Inhumane” and “Disgusting” Mass Layoff Execution, According to Microsoft Staff
The workers are looking for other places to work
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Slogan for Its 40th Anniversary
The freedoms are what's most important
Microsoft is Trying to "Pull a Nokia" on GNU/Linux as Desktop/Laptop Platform
We all remember that rather well, don't we?
LLM Slopfarms gbhackers.com, "Cyber Press" and CyberSecurityNews Are Drowning Google News (and Shame on Google for Feeding and Facilitating Them)
All are run by the same people
Links 23/07/2025: Droplets GUI Patent Monopoly Challenge, Nokia Leverages Illegal Patent Court Against Rivals
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Community in Geminispace and Challenges With Old Computers
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Slop Patents Tackled, Slop Copyright Misuses Tackled by Politicians
Links for the day
Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
Links 23/07/2025: Retreating From Transparency on Jeffrey Epstein, We No Longer Have Press Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Piano and Food
Links for the day
New and Old
On Ageism in Tech
Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
EPO Crimes Are Spreading to the British Court System
Society is now paying the price for failing to tackle crimes at the EPO
It's Time to Dump SharePoint and Here's What to Use Instead
Nextcloud, ownCloud, Bookstack, MediaWiki, and MediaGoblin
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Has Gone Silent
Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Planet Ubuntu, and LinuxTechLab
some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
Links 23/07/2025: Book Bans, Storms, and Kangaroo Court for Patents Commits More Unlawful Acts of Overreach
Links for the day