Reference: Ministries of Nineteen Eighty-Four
AS last noted yesterday, in a few days there may be a major event which relates to a defamed and suspended judge. As secrecy cannot be assured this time around, there is opportunity for judicial oversight, but EPO management "was again creative in finding way to circumvent the effective presence of the public," according to this new comment which suggests that Team Battistelli chose a very small room:
Indeed, the public announcement of the oral proceedings in Art. 23 1/16 at the entrance of the Isar building indicates the hearing is public.
It is also known room 131 is a very small one! If the EBA as it seems in fact decided to held a public hearing, the administration was again creative in finding way to circumvent the effective presence of the public…
Ah yes, the famous "Hitchhiker's Guide" approach to public proceedings:
M. BATTISTELLI: But, Mr Dent, the notice of the hearing has been available in the EPO for the last week!
ARTHUR DENT (PATENT ATTORNEY): Yes! I went round to find it yesterday afternoon. You’d hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to pull much attention to them have you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything.
M. BATTISTELLI: The announcement was on display.
ARTHUR DENT: Ah! And how many members of the public are in the habit of casually dropping around the EPO of an evening?
M. BATTISTELLI: Er – ah!
ARTHUR DENT: It’s not exactly a noted social venue is it? And even if you had popped in on the off chance that some raving bureaucrat wanted to fire a member of the Board of Appeal, the announcement wasn't immediately obvious to the eye, was it?
M. BATTISTELLI: That depends where you were looking.
ARTHUR DENT: I eventually had to go down to the cellar!
M. BATTISTELLI: That’s the public area of the Office.
ARTHUR DENT: With a torch!
M. BATTISTELLI: The lights, had… probably gone.
ARTHUR DENT: So had the stairs!
M. BATTISTELLI: Well you found the notice didn’t you?
ARTHUR DENT: Yes. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet, stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying “Beware of the Leopard”.