Image credit: Seydelmann, published under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
MATERIAL continues to trickle out of the EPO and each day we learn something new about the decision to send the appeal boards to exile (see this week's coverage so far). It's depressing for me to see and I don't even work for the EPO. Battistelli is -- pardon the pun -- absolutely butchering the EPO. Insiders know it and even outsiders like patent attorneys are quickly catching on. They would be right to panic as valuation of their largest clients' patent portfolios must have collapsed (some of them don't know this yet).
"It's an internal announcement and the rest of it includes a lot of budget numbers, which is the sort of thing that they would not like leaked and probably serve no purpose for this post."Here are the outcomes from the meeting of the 26th of October (that's yesterday): "Continuing the implementation of the Boards of Appeal reform, the contract related to the lease of a building in Haar / Munich, which will be the new location of the Boards of Appeal Unit, was submitted to the BFC. Although several delegations requested additional technical information, the BFC gave a positive opinion (13 in favour, 8 against and 15 abstentions)."
"The boards have in fact shrunk in recent years, as no new openings (or hardly any) get advertised, probably because of the UPC fairy tales so deeply ingrained in Battistelli's little mind and Big Head."It's an internal announcement and the rest of it includes a lot of budget numbers, which is the sort of thing that they would not like leaked and probably serve no purpose for this post. We therefore omit those numbers -- not because they are anything special but because it is more sensitive information which there's little for the public to gain from. Remember that office space is shrinking with this relocation (or 'exile' as we call it), so don't fall for the spin of accommodating more staff (the EPO experiences brain drain and cannot recruit fast enough!). The boards have in fact shrunk in recent years, as no new openings (or hardly any) get advertised, probably because of the UPC fairy tales so deeply ingrained in Battistelli's little mind and Big Head.
It is worth mentioning that the Budget and Finance Committee only issues an opinion. The decision about 'exile' (they use this term, they prefer euphemisms) to Haar will be made at the next Administrative Council (AC) meeting, which is due to happen on the 14th and 15th of December. So far, as was implied above, only financial matters have been considered. It might not be too late to stop this separation.
"In our view, Battistelli was put in place for fiscal reasons."One might ask, why does the Haar relocation matter so much? Well, from what we are able to gather, there may be an untold purpose to it. My personal hypothesis for a couple of years now is that EPO management clutches any pretext to dismiss staff representatives to rob the staff of their voices before layoffs. Something very, very big is happening at the EPO (more so this year and last year). The management says too little about it, but one can see some signs on the wall.
Looking at what the EPO has in store at IPSDM, it looks as though Battistelli's so-called "economist" from France is gaining influence. To quote IP Australia: "Yann Ménière, Chief Economist @EPOorg will chair a session on International patent protection & trade at #IPSDM https://www.ipsdm2016.com/"
In our view, Battistelli was put in place for fiscal reasons. He's not a scientist, he's pretty clueless about patents, but he sure attempts to cut costs, increase so-called 'production' (no matter the cost to quality and reputation) and this appointment of a French "economist" (the word pertains to a pseudo-science with fake 'Nobel' [sic] prize that's banksters' blatant means for rewarding complicit academics) lends some evidence to our longstanding suspicions.
"Battistelli should be thought of more like an EPO liquidator (trying to squeeze out whatever money is left in it before it implodes), not a manager and certainly not a President."According to this new comment, the EPO's HR department (managed by the wife of Battistelli's buddy) is pushing out longtime staff, replacing these people with temporary or short-term workers with limited skills (hence more likely to just grant patents with little scrutiny, having failed to identity prior art). Sending the appeal boards away while understaffing them, threatening their independence (deterrence) and significantly increasing the cost of their service further complements this strategy or this modus operandi. Here is what today's comment says ("Latest HR trend says..."): "Publishing new Euro contract vacancies and forcing at the same time Eponians to leave their permanent positions for the sake of gaining excessive HR control (temporary contracts and probation periods galore!). Trust me I am your HR manager!... see you at the next social conference."
This perfectly agrees with everything we've been hearing, publishing and reading (without publishing). Battistelli should be thought of more like an EPO liquidator (trying to squeeze out whatever money is left in it before it implodes), not a manager and certainly not a President. Battistelli is to the EPO what Elop was to Nokia. ⬆
