Bonum Certa Men Certa

Politician Links UPC to EPO Abuses and Slams the European Commission for Overlooking EPO Tragedies Like “Violations of Fundamental Rights” and Deaths

At what cost can politicians turn a blind eye to the destruction of the EPO (some believe to promote/shield the UPC, as Maas certainly does)

Marc TarabellaSummary: A new parliamentary intervention shows that some -- albeit very few -- politicians do pay attention or care about the situation at the European Patent Office and they try to do something about it

MARC TARABELLA (S&D) is already familiar with EPO scandals and last year he accused the Commission of being passively complicit in the EPO's abuses.



Tarabella, according to SUEPO, has just brought up "European Patent Office (EPO) and social abuses," putting forth the following "Question for written answer E-002338/2017 to the European Commission..."

From SUEPO's English translation, which was published earlier today:

In 2016 The President of the European Patent Office dismissed three elected staff representatives, all of them members of the staff union. Three other staff representatives were aggressively demoted in 2015 and 2016. Over the past four years five staff members of the EPO have committed suicide. Sheltering behind its immunity, the EPO has refused any independent enquiry by the local authorities concerned with regard to the circumstances of these deaths. While it is true that the Supreme Court of the Netherlands has recently upheld the immunity of the EPO, the findings of the Court of Appeal with regard to the violations of fundamental rights remain totally valid. If these events had occurred within European institutions, there can be no doubt that action would have been taken rapidly to determine where responsibility lay and to impose the appropriate penalties, but nothing of that kind has been done with the EPO.

"If these events had occurred within European institutions, there can be no doubt that action would have been taken rapidly to determine where responsibility lay and to impose the appropriate penalties, but nothing of that kind has been done with the EPO."The EU Commission has entrusted the EPO with producing the Unitary Patent. All of the twenty eight countries of the EU are represented on the Administrate Council of the EPO. The Commission has a seat as an observer, and can therefore make its voice heard. For more than three years, many members of parliament have also been condemning the highly “problematic” social situation at the EPO. Is it not high time that it made its views known, and takes up the position adopted by parliament with regard to the EPO?

What if the official position of the European Commission on these social abuses?

Is it in favour of an independent enquiry?



The EPO's management is of course trying to ignore all this while pretending to be "with science" (or "with research"). It's distracting at a huge expense even while is mocks and attacks science (more on that later today). Earlier today the EPO promoted this nonsense again. This publicity stunt, which EPO applicants are paying for against their will, is designed to accomplish nothing but distraction. It's just something for the EPO's PR people to link to and say that they “support science” even when they promote lies and human rights abuses.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 17/04/2025: Calling Whistleblowers at Microsoft, Slop Doing More Harm Everywhere
Links for the day
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: In Conclusion and Enforcement Action Proceeds Against OSI at the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)
There's too much to cover in one single part
 
To Understand Who's Truly Controlling You Follow the Trail of Censorship (or Self-Censorship)
Do not let media steal and steer the narrative; CoCs are not about "social justice", they're about corporate domination
Fedora Already Lost Its Soul Under IBM
Fedora used to be very strict compared to many other distros and it had attracted very bright volunteers
Microsoft is Still Attacking GNU/Linux and the Net
Microsoft bribed the government using money that did not even exist
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 17, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 17, 2025
Gemini Links 18/04/2025: Pinephone Pro and Linux is too Easy
Links for the day
Links 17/04/2025: Russian Bot Farms Infect TikTok (Which US Government and SCOTUS Decided to Block January 19), US Hardware Stocks Crash Due to Tariffs
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/04/2025: Sticking to Free Software, Smolnet, and Counting the Reals
Links for the day
When You Fail to Filter Your Clients You End Up SLAPPing Reporters on Behalf of Bad People From Microsoft in Another Continent
“American Psycho”
Links 17/04/2025: LayoffBot and Tesla Cheats Buyers
Links for the day
Gemnini Links 17/04/2025: Role of Language and Back to Mutt for E-mail
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 16, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Trump Authority (CA) With a Trump NSA is All About Security, But Whose?
A "turnkey tyranny", as the NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake loved to call it
Confirming IBM Shutdowns and Layoffs Today
It's not over yet
Gemini Links 16/04/2025: The 2010s Are Calling and Why "Tools Will Not Liberate Us"
Links for the day
You Should Probably Self-Host Your E-mail and Never Use a Web Browser for Mail
Does anyone still believe Gmail is "free"?
Links 16/04/2025: Cliff Lynch RIP, More Attacks on Science (NASA)
Links for the day
StatCounter Shows the Market Share of Vista 11 is Decreasing in Ukraine This Year
Microsoft abandoning Vista 10 users would be a victory for Vladimir Putin
Google Promotes Fake Articles (LLM Slop) Instead of Originals, Relaying Microsoft's Linux FUD Emanating From Microsoft LLMs
Shame on Google for participating in the slopfest
In Some Countries the Largest OEMs Already Dump Microsoft Windows
Windows at 18.9%, Android 60.2%
The "Gold" Rule: Taking Money for Reputation Laundering and Openwashing Under the "Linux" Banner
Seller of expensive toilet paper, Jim Zemlin
LLM Slop Says Slop is "coming for white-collar jobs. Microsoft’s layoffs are just the start"
Look what the Web has become
Microsoft Down From 100% to 10% in Myanmar/Burma
only about 4% of Web requests in Myanmar/Burma come from Vista 11, soon to be the only "supported" version of Windows
Reporting Facts About Violence Against Women Deserves Awards, Not Frivolous Lawsuits and Threats
What is Microsoft's stance on women's safety?
Linux.com as Spamfarm of the Linux Foundation, Partner of the Gates Foundation
They no longer publish articles
When Fedora Said It Was Looking to Integrate "AI" It Meant Promoting Microsoft's Proprietary Spyware and GPL-Violating Slop
When they say "AI" they mean Microsoft
Slopwatch: The Typical Slopfarms and the 'Brian Fagioli Dilemma'
To the Web and to society (exposed to the Web) LLMs are a net negative
It Used to be IBM, Now It's Microsoft (Why You Need to Fire Microsofters or CIOs Working for Microsoft)
Typically the only effective solution is to identity and remove Microsofters from one's project/organisation (before they can bring more Microsofters in)
IBM Closes Offices and Labs in the United States to Open New Ones in India
It's not layoffs per se; they're substituting/swapping veteran employees for lesser-paid ones
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 15, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Gemini Links 16/04/2025: IndieWeb Carnival, Tinylog RFC, "Focus, the Web and Gemini"
Links for the day