Reference: Google bomb

NOW that EPO staff is outdoors (protesting against the employer) it is a good time to remind readers of Battistelli's alleged practice of vote-buying. Whether or not Battistelli is intentionally buying votes is beside the point of the net effect. Quite a few nations, especially tiny nations with almost no patents, are terrified by the financial effect of withdrawing support for Battistelli at the Administrative Council's meeting (which starts today). One of those nations received an incentive just shortly before another such meeting and yesterday, promoted in the morning over at Twitter (24 hours before the meeting commences), Benoît Battistelli and his thug (Željko Topić) finally posted their photo op from Croatia (warning: epo.org link), confirming what we wrote yesterday about Croatian media's 'coverup' for Topić (it was a surprise visit of for UPC puff pieces).

"Whether or not Battistelli is intentionally buying votes is beside the point of the net effect."We don't suppose Croatia will oppose Battistelli's proposals today and tomorrow. See the photo with the caption that says "Željko Topić, EPO Vice-President Directorate-General Administration, EPO President Battistelli, Director General of Croatian State Intellectual Property Office Ljiljana Kuterovac and Croatian Deputy Minister of Science and Education Krešo Zadro" (recall what we previously wrote about Kuterovac [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]).

When people in Croatia look up information about the EPO or when Europeans look up information about Croatia/SIPO we suppose they're more likely to come across all these puff pieces from the past week, with not a single word in them about the criminal charges against Željko Topić. That's the art of Googlebombing and when the EPO wastes over a million Euros per year on a peripheral PR agency this whole exercise is likely deliberate. So expect Croatia not to oppose Battistelli's proposals this week, expect Kuterovac to continue to protect a crook, expect Croatian people to be further bamboozled regarding the UPC (maybe even ratify), and expect the public to know little or nothing about the Vice-President of the EPO and the serious charges against him (which can land him in jail for very a long time).

"Can we also expect Spain, with people like Patricia García-Escudero Márquez in the mix, to be a Battistelli "yes man" this week?"Concerning this week's meeting in Munich, expect Battistelli to attempt to marginalise the appeal boards even further, to lie yet more about erosion of patent quality (a face-saving announcement was made just days ago), and to further crush the unions. In relation to the Spanish 'chinchilla' (or 'mole') of Battistelli in the Boards of Appeal Committee (BoAC), as covered here before, see this piece republished on Tuesday (a day before the meeting) just to say: "On March 16, 2016, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM) and the European Patent Office (EPO) signed a new work plan for the cooperation with Ibero America during 2016-2017."

Can we also expect Spain, with people like Patricia García-Escudero Márquez in the mix, to be a Battistelli "yes man" this week? Judging by previous meetings, it's very much possible. Battistelli visited Madrid only weeks ago (Spain is strategic to him because of the UPC, which Spain still rightly opposes).

In order for the EPO not to become synonymous with institutional corruption the Administrative Council must take firm and immediate action. ⬆