Bonum Certa Men Certa

English-Speaking Media Catches Up With Latest Twists in EPO Fiasco, Including Appeal to the European Court of Human Rights

This was publicly debated by Dutch authorities yesterday

House of Representatives (Netherlands)



Summary: Actions about or against EPO management have accelerated ahead of next month's Administrative Council meeting, whose head is leaving after alleged orders/commands from his government (half a year after we exposed his conflict of interest/s)

AS we noted a few weeks ago, under the surface and behind the silence there was something brewing. The EPO scandals recently culminated in the apparent firing of Battistelli's 'boss' (someone told us that the government forced his resignation -- an EPO tactic where it's made to look like early retirement) and the European Court of Human Rights may soon step in. Yesterday we reposted SUEPO's statement (which had also been sent by E-mail, based on a new comment from IP Kat).



This morning, the British media covered this latest twist (it's in the front page of The Register right now). Kieren McCarthy wrote:

The staff union of the European Patent Office on Tuesday applied to the European Court of Human Rights in an effort to force greater accountability on the organization and its president, Benoit Battistelli.

The EPO has carried out a years-long campaign of surveillance, intimidation and disciplinary hearings against staff who have opposed Battistelli's reform efforts: a campaign that would be illegal under the laws of the countries in which the organization resides.

But when the staff union, SUEPO, sued to force the organization to follow those laws, EPO management claimed immunity due to its status as an international organization. After a protracted legal battle, the Dutch Supreme Court ultimately agreed with that argument, and shortly thereafter EPO's president Battistelli sacked another staff union representative, sparking more protests.

SUEPO is appealing that decision to the human rights court by making the case that the immunity provision only holds if an organization has effective internal remedies. It argues that the EPO does not, and that its own systems are also severely lacking.


Even blogs of the patent microcosm are starting to respond to the damage caused by Battistelli's poor leadership and yesterday Kluwer wrote this:

EPO trade union files complaint against The Netherlands before European Court of Human Rights



[...]

In several other EPO member states – France, Germany, for instance – and at the European Union, the disastrous social climate at the EPO has been on the agenda repeatedly as well. Last month, the USF, the largest federation of Unions of the Public Service wrote a letter to the members of the European Parliament, stating: ‘Countless reports in the media about dismissed staff representatives, other scandals and a total loss of trust of the staff in the current EPO president, Mr. Battistelli, are evidence of the seriousness of the situation at the EPO.’ Recently, in a series of articles on this blog (I, II, III, IV), the negative consequences of the EPO policy for patent quality were questioned as well.

Crucially however, Battistelli still seems to have support of enough members of the EPO’s supervisory Administrative Council, which could have taken more measures against the authoritarian president than it has been willing to.

The complaint before the ECHR is the latest attempt to do something about the EPO crisis. In the Dutch newspaper Nederlands Dagblad, lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld explained it is directed against The Netherlands, ‘because it has actively promoted upholding the EPO’s immunity’. According to Zegveld, the Dutch government has a diplomatic interest in doing this, ‘as it hopes for international organizations to settle in the Netherlands’. It wasn’t immediately clear when a decision can be expected from ECHR, but it will probably take quite some time. A brochure of the court of 2012 indicates the aim is to finalize cases within three years.


EPSU, which has generally been supportive of SUEPO (as recently as a few months ago), tweeted me about it this morning. "Unions @EPOorg launch complaint against Dutch State with #ECHR as justice denied to workers," EPSU stated. Over at IP Kat there are now rumours about what will happen after Jesper Kongstad's (JK) departure:

Perhaps JK taking over as head honcho at the EPO could be Battistelli's "Plan B" in the (perhaps unlikely) event that someone at the AC points out that BB [Battistelli] will be beyond mandatory retirement age from August next year? After all, if it cannot be BB himself, then it would have to be a "trusted" acolyte... if only to keep the lid on the explosive secrets that we all know are just waiting to be uncovered.


Secrets like that money which got spent building Battistelli a palace at the expense (losses) of a Dutch contractor?

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Gemini Links 20/05/2025: LLM Scraper Bots in Gopher and "Starmer and the Somewheres"
Links for the day
Skype Fell Off a Cliff (Microsoft Killed It), All Microsoft Has Left Now is Slop and Spaghetti Code
"This isn’t about AI. This is a puppet show to drive stock prices up and down."
Slopfarms (Machine-Generated Fake News Sites Authored by Bots With Slop Images) Spread GNU FUD
This isn't about Linux (GNU doesn't run just on Linux)
United States Federal Government's Digital Analytics Program (DAP): GNU/Linux Users Represent Close to 6% of Visitors This Year
How far has GNU/Linux gotten? Very far!
The "LLM Ouroboros of Shit" is Complemented by Even Worse Phenomena Caused by Microsoft's Contribution of SPAM and Pollution
Microsoft became a world leader in promotion of LLM slop
The LLM Ouroboros Phenomenon
Fact #1: over time slop gets worse (training set is like some blurry JPEG). Fact #2: People's "smell" for slop improves over time, as they 'train' on slop and can detect it based on prior encounters. Put 1 and 2 together.
How We Defeated DDoS Attacks
One of the best things one can do is migrate to an SSG
Microsofters Issuing Threats to Microsoft Critics Who Blog About Microsoft
So far we see that their "legal strategy" revolves around trying to discredit people like Theodore Ts'o
 
Openwashing of Windows, Back Doors, Persistent Surveillance, Keyloggers, Screen Loggers, DRM and So On
WSL is not "Linux", it's Windows
New 'Interview' With - or Talk Coverage of - Richard Stallman in the European Union
automated English translation
IBM Mass Redundancies Likely This Coming Thursday
We're not in a position to judge if that's true or false
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 19, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, May 19, 2025
Microsoft a Top Sponsor at Red Hat Summit (IBM Selling Proprietary Spyware and Back Doors in a "Red" Trench Coat)
They both work for Microsoft
The Official SUSE Blog Uses LLM Slop to Compose Fake Articles Promoting Microsoft and Azure
even a little slop spoils the broth
Links 19/05/2025: Charges of Blackmailing Over Son Heung-min, Chad Opposition Leader Detained
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/05/2025: Ableism, Silicon Monkeys, and More
Links for the day
Links 19/05/2025: Political Catchup and CISA Advisories
Links for the day
TheLayoff.com Has Begun Deleting Trolls/AstroTurfers Infesting the IBM Section to Discourage On-Topic Discussion About Culls and Maladministration (Bad Strategy)
Moderators have realised there's a problem
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 18, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 18, 2025
Gemini Links 18/05/2025: Five Years on Gemini and Atom Feeds over Gopher
Links for the day
Links 18/05/2025: F.D.A. More Sceptical of COVID-19 Vaccines, UK Charges 3 Iranian Nationals In Alleged Attack Plot Against Journalists
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/05/2025: "Finally Upgraded" and "Rebooting"
Links for the day
There Are Days or Occasions Where gemini:// Requests Almost Exceed http(s):// and Gemini Protocol Isn't Even 6 Yet
Gemini Protocol turns 6 one month from now
Abundance of Good Code, "Just Like Air."
Richard Stallman's seminal manifesto and foundational (practical) work on GNU gave us a very solid system that facilitates productive work without concerns over spyware
Messages in TheLayoff.com Drowned Out by LLM Slop (Comments Focused on Replying to Bot-Generated Provocation)
apparently shaking hands with nazis isn't as bad as calling your git repository's main branch "master"
The Importance of Full Disclosure and Transparency Online
there will be full transparency, as always
Slopwatch: Slopfarms and Serial Sloppers Still at It
Apparently Google is too understaffed to figure that out
Links 18/05/2025: Decreased Prospects of Science Careers, Disappearance of Journalists
Links for the day
Microsofters Have a Long History Trying to Take Down Techrights by Sending Threats to Webhosts
picking on women
Links 18/05/2025: Science, Censorship and European Commission Taking on Monopoly Abuse by Microsoft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/05/2025: Šibenik and SFJAZZ Historical Archive
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 17, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 17, 2025