Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO's Old Spokesman (10 Years in Munich) Resigns Again After Only 5 Weeks, EPO is Just Buying the Media Now

At what cost?

Operation Mockingbird
Operation Mockingbird



Summary: Oswald Schröder, who left the EPO when things turned truly disastrous, is leaving again and it seems apparent that spending millions of Euros buying the media is all that Team Battistelli has got left before the public realises that it's just another FIFA

POLITICAL pressure against the EPO is growing again. Politicians speak to one another and it starts to be too much for Battistelli to bear.



We don't expect Battistelli to be able to 'buy' his way into silencing them like he does the Administrative Council and he cannot just blacklist YouTube or the European Parliament's Web sites Office-wide (this is how Battistelli increasingly deals with dissent, having resorted to the most miserable measurements imaginable, short of hiring mercenaries to murder his perceived enemies). Now that JoinUp at Europe.eu publishes "Portugal to boost digital economy with EUR 1.9 billion" we can't help thinking of this week's 'gift' from Battistelli to Portugal. How will that turn out? The whole media strategy of the EPO right now is just "pay lots of money for media companies to say nice things" (i.e. buy the media) and this is very expensive. It's gross waste and abuse from a leadership that's about to have a 'FIFA/Blatter moment'.

"Remember that IAM was chosen to organise UPC propaganda events supported by the EPO and financed by the EPO's PR firm along with UPC profiteers."Based on this new article from Luxembourg, the EPO's spokesperson who left (we last mentioned this last year, he had worked for the EPO in Munich for a decade) is leaving again after just 5 week at the GDL palace. To quote an automated translation of the article about Oswald Schröder: "Just five weeks he was in office: Now, the new spokesman for the Grand Ducal Court, Oswald Schröder, already resigned. [...] Schroeder's departure is the second to hold the post in the last months. Last fall spokeswoman Isabelle Faber had resigned with immediate effect on their function. Then took a "Comité de pilotage" led by Nadège Lartigue communication of the court to the outside. On May 1, Oswald Schröder was presented as the new spokesman for the court. Schroeder was formerly marketing director of BGL Bank and Spokesman of the European Patent Office in Munich. His deputy is Caroline Verhoeven, who has worked for the European Commission and a short time from the publisher "Maison modern"."

Maybe Oswald Schröder simply left the EPO because he saw what was coming. We could use a translation of the entire article.

Joff Wild, one of Battistelli's propaganda troops (IAM), is still promoting the UPC. Remember that IAM was chosen to organise UPC propaganda events supported by the EPO and financed by the EPO's PR firm along with UPC profiteers. Here is the latest from Wild, wrongly assuming people actually want the UPC:

Beating Brexit – So it turns out a few senior IP people have noticed the opinion polls in the UK indicating that the Leave side in the country’s referendum on EU membership is now ahead of the Remain side. The conventional wisdom is that if the UK does vote to quit the EU, then the Unified Patent Court agreement will remain unratified and the new regime will not come into force until, at the earliest, the UK formally departs. But, wait a minute, some people are now saying. The UPC is not an EU Treaty, it is an inter-governmental one. Were the UK to ratify it would not necessarily be going against the spirit of the referendum result and, in any case, it will remain a member state for a fair while even if the result is for Leave on 23rd June. Of course, this depends on how the UK government sees things. The country’s IP minister is, like the Prime Minister David Cameron, a Remainer. The justice minister, Michael Gove, on the other hand, is a prominent Leaver. But if the UK government can be persuaded to sign up despite a vote to depart, then – the thinking seems to be – a way will be found in the period that exists between that vote and departure to ensure that whatever happens the UK remains within the unitary patent system. It’s hard to believe that British industry would not want that - the country’s patent profession certainly does - and it’s not as if patents are high-profile. Essentially, no-one would actually notice. It makes sense, I guess; but whether it would actually be the right thing to do once the will of the people has been expressed is very much open to question. (JW)


The bottom line is this. As people will find out later this week, the EPO's media strategy is just to pay the media. No wonder Schröder is no longer at the EPO. It's embarrassing.

Recent Techrights' Posts

IBM Has Taken Control of GNOME
Don't expect a successor to be found any time soon
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 30, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, August 30, 2025
 
Links 31/08/2025: Baggage Claim Scams, an Insurrectionist’s War on Culture, and a Sudden Robotics Hype
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/08/2025: Reviewing Netsurf and Slightly Less Historic Ada Design
Links for the day
Links 31/08/2025: Google Gmail Data Breach and LF Puff Pieces for Pay
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
This is What Google News Has Become
Moments ago
The Slopfarm WebProNews Has Turned Google News Into a Laughing Stock Full of Plagiarism by Slop
If Google News dies of neglect, that's one thing. It's starting to seem like active neglect by Google is a form of participation.
Do What is Moral, as What's Legal Isn't Always Moral
Do what's objectively moral, no matter the costs and the risks
Slopwatch: Google News Assisting Plagiarism and Anti-Linux FUD, Serial Slopper Rips Off Linux-Centric Journalists
This makes the Web a much worse place and lessens the incentive to do journalism
Links 30/08/2025: NVIDIA Fakes Results to Hide a Bubble Already in Implosion Phase, Data Breaches Galore, Important Win for Workers' Union in Canada
Links for the day
Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
In Kazakhstan, Yandex Estimated to be 20 Times Bigger Than Microsoft
Bing is measured as down this month
Shutterstock Not Enough? The Register MS Uses Slop Images in Articles (Seemingly More and More Over Time)
Cost-saving trajectory amid office shutdown?
Gemini Links 30/08/2025: Games, PostmarketOS, and Slop
Links for the day
Links 30/08/2025: Imgur Uproar and Many Ukraine Updates (Mediazona Reports Over 200,000 Russians Died for Putin)
Links for the day
How Not to Build Software
code forges that need a Web browser perhaps fill some 'niche' demand
GAFAM and "MATA"
The use of dark humour there hopefully helps illuminate what a lot of "modern" technology became like and how it interacts with human civilisation (to what ends and whose gain)
Birds Are Not "Pests and Vermin", Privacy is Not a Crime, and GNU/Linux is Not 'Hacking Platform'
I could not help but think of Free software analogies
The Sites Should Be Very Fast Again
That issue is now resolved
Flying in 2025
worse than ever before
Activists, Including Technical Activists, Need Not Pursue Affirmation
Techrights doesn't play or participate in a "popularity contest"
The UEFI 9/11 - Part III - Chaos is Scheduled to Happen Second Thursday of September (No Matter What the Microsofters Tell You)
The clock is ticking
Downplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
Government Sites Should Run Free Software
Not proprietary bloatware with buzzwords
LLM Slopfarms Take No Breaks
When people run sites by bots they don't need to worry about "breaks"
GNOME Having a Meltdown Again
Thanks and farewell to Steven Deobald
Gemini Links 30/08/2025: Low Tech and Hunchbin 1.0.6
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 29, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 29, 2025
Financiers and Sponsors of the Slop Hype (Pyramid Scheme Waiting to End, Bubble That Will Inevitably Implode)
It's also burning the planet
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Google Helps Ponzi Schemes and Slopfarms in Google News
Slopfarms are a real pain
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Retiring at 62 and URL Filtering HTTP(S) Proxy on Qubes OS
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Lisa Cook Sues Convicted Felon and Backdoor Mandate in UK Resisted
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day