Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Latest Expensive PR Blitz of the EPO, Led by Jana Mittermaier and Rainer Osterwalder Under the 'European Inventor Award' Banner

EPO preoccupied with lobbying officials rather than patent examination

Portugal and Battistelli



Summary: The PR agencies of the Corsican in Chief, who appears to be buying political support rather than earning any, are very busy this week, as yet another reputation laundering campaign kicks off

REMEMBER "European Inventor Award"? That incredibly expensive (wasteful) EPO PR and lobbying charade which is artificial (manufactured) hype?



"Battistelli thinks he is "improving lives" (the headline/title); Except thousands of his workers' lives (plus their families'), including those who committed suicide due to him."Well, it's back again and yesterday the EPO wrote (warning: epo.org link) in the monarch's narrative, as usual: ""This year's finalists demonstrate that Europe continues to be a world leader in innovation. The outstanding inventors nominated for the European Inventor Award allow us to honour the men and women whose ingenious work contributes to the competitiveness of the European economy and improves our daily lives," said EPO President Benoît Battistelli. "The European patent system remains a pillar for securing Europe's position as a global marketplace for innovation."

"The European patent system remains a pillar" of a broken chair maybe. Battistelli broke it.

"Under Battistelli, as a matter of fact, the Office actually rewarded those whose fake 'innovations' were killing many people."It didn't take long for the EPO's PR department to then tweet a link to Battistelli's 'blog' (warning: epo.org link). Battistelli thinks he is "improving lives" (the headline/title); Except thousands of his workers' lives (plus their families'), including those who committed suicide due to him. How about the lives of all those inventors and businesses that got sued (or will get sued) with bogus EPs granted under Battistelli's regime due to pressure? Patents don't improve lives on their own. They can sometimes support an important discovery, but the patents in their own right don't "improve lives".

"These innovations," he wrote, "have improved and even saved the lives of millions"; well, how many ill people were denied access to live-saving medicine due to patents that killed off generics? Battistelli is quite a newbie when it comes to this topic (only in his mid-fifties he belatedly got introduced to it), so one can almost excuse him for such ignorance.

Under Battistelli, as a matter of fact, the Office actually rewarded those whose fake 'innovations' were killing many people. That's hardly a good thing. He helped legitimise a fraud.

"Jana Mittermaier and Rainer Osterwalder are behind at least some them (they are explicitly listed) and occasionally other firms..."Later in the day the EPO retweeted some nonsense from Siemens (Philips probably did the same thing). "Siemens Healthineers Jan van den Boogaart & Prof Dr Oliver Hayden are finalists for 2017 European Inventor Award," they said. But wait, it didn't quite happen like this. There is a big, expensive PR campaign going on. It started with this tweet and then another which said: "Behind every invention is a scientist who made it happen."

Soon thereafter we found a lot of puff pieces about it, e.g. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. On the surface it may look like superficial, poor journalism, but actually it's almost ghost-written or coordinated in advance. See for example this one. Some of the above are 'planted' pieces and/or paid EPO press releases intended to promote Battistelli's lobbying event. They are being published right now in tandem. Jana Mittermaier and Rainer Osterwalder are behind at least some them (they are explicitly listed) and occasionally other firms, with names like these showing up (more PR help from the outside?):

Jonathan Weinberg Shepard Fox Communications Tel. +44 2033 184491 Mobile: +44 7947 141014 jonathan.weinberg@shepard-fox.com


The matter of fact is, a lot of stakeholders' money is being totally wasted on utter nonsense. Mittermaier and Osterwalder, together with FTI Consulting we suppose, are trying to paste/plant their rubbish in news sites, quite frankly as usual.

Lo and behold. This is what the EPO has become.

Recent Techrights' Posts

European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Centre (in Portugal) Falls Apart…
Luís Montenegro became embroiled in a conflict-of-interest controversy
Links 10/06/2026: More Microsoft Layoffs, Sweden to "Ban Mobile Phones in Schools"
Links for the day
 
SLAPP Censorship - Part 103 Out of 200: Telling People What They Know and Don't Know About Death Threats They Receive
patronising letters sent on behalf of the Serial Strangler from Microsoft
IBM Genies in the Bottle
for ordinary people working who at at IBM, it's not hard to see that IBM is floundering
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 10, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Links 11/06/2026: LF Openwashing of Slop and "Azerbaijan Bans TikTok and Other Social Media Apps in School"
Links for the day
IBM Lost About 18% of Its "Market Value" This Month
In IBM's case, a lot of the latest "pump" was Arvind's "quantum" hype/fantasy
Gemini Links 10/06/2026: Signal to Noise, Cancer, and Permacomputing
Links for the day
Communities and "Prosumers."
today's meetup will be about community
Gemini and Gopher Links 10/06/2026: Roasting, Changes, and Harms of Slop
Links for the day
Microsoft Azure Shrinking With More Mass Layoffs
"Reports suggest the layoffs will impact close to 200 out of 400 workers, who are set to cease employment at Azure on July 6"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 09, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 09, 2026
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Centre-Right "Social Democratic Party" in Portugal
Quite an achievement for a former Maoist radical and aspiring champion of the Portuguese proletariat to be invited to join Goldman Sachs
SLAPP Censorship - Part 102 Out of 200: Maybe One Day Whistleblowers From Brett Wilson LLP Will Tell Us What Really Happened
Maybe one day some former staff of Brett Wilson LLP will also approach us to blow the whistle
What LibreOffice and TDF Get Right About Document Formats (and What They Get Wrong)
OOXML is a phantom - it is something nobody implements, not even Microsoft!
Gemini Links 09/06/2026: "The Mist of the Lands Between", Board Game Concept
Links for the day
2026: The Year Slop Companies "Made an Exit" (Threw in the Towel Over to Wall Street)
Remember 2026 as the year two major slop companies (which we won't name) sought an IPO
Links 09/06/2026: NSO Group still cracking, "FOI tribunal throws out £14k costs claim against journalist Barnie Choudhury"
Links for the day
Links 09/06/2026: "Smartphones Broke Dating" and "EU Open Source Strategy"
Links for the day
Cannot Speak About IBM Wrongdoing or Jobs Being Sent Overseas (Lower Salaries)
IBM has long attacked the media, the whistleblowers, and even online forums
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The CIA-Funded Centre-Left in Portugal
In the political turmoil which followed the fall of the old regime, the communists seemed to be acquiring a dominant position and there was a very real risk that Portugal could end up aligned with the Eastern Bloc if they were not stopped
This Coming Friday
Richard Stallman (RMS)
Yesterday Afternoon The Register MS Published a Fake Article That Says "AI" 31 Times Because It Got Paid to Do This
What will happen when all those loans for slop (Ponzi scheme) stop and companies' marketing budgets - which include media bribes for hype campaigns - are no more?
Extraordinary General Meeting of Staff Union of the European Patent Office Ahead of Intensifying Strikes
We will, in the meantime, run a series about EPO corruption, which is now connected to corruption in Portugal and to corruption inside the EU
Several Slopfarms That Target "Linux" Seem to Have Died
Or perished severely
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 08, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, June 08, 2026
Gemini Links 09/06/2026: Tanana River, Cassette Beasts, and Emacs
Links for the day