Summary: The EUIPO and EPO -- with overlaps notwithstanding (including staff intersections at the very top) -- revisited in light of reports that reinforce the connection and expect Campinos to become Battistelli's successor

FOR a number of years German media looked the other way when EPO scandals went on. Recently, however, things have improved somewhat and in the coming days we intend to publish in English and in German (in tandem). We are going to expose a scandal which quite likely implicates the German government, hence maximal impact (in the media/awareness sense) is paramount. We kindly ask readers to contact German journalists/publishers and make them aware of these things; no need to pressure, just a gentle/polite reminder would do. The Croatian media is already writing about these things and watching us closely. The nature of the scandal involves trademarks and the EPO (even though they may seem unrelated).

"The nature of the scandal involves trademarks and the EPO (even though they may seem unrelated)."Germany has various different reasons to sweep these things under the rug. We have written over a dozen articles listing some of these motivations. One of these motivations is the UPC, which Maas definitely wants. Yesterday, in this comment at IP Kat someone brought up the costs of Britain leaving the EU (and the UPC with it), noting: "I wonder how much the UPC court will be..."

Currently, 12 countries have NOT ratified the UPC, but Bristows (part of Team UPC) prefers to spin it all using tiny economies, arguing that "13 countries that have now ratified." (that's just about half of the total).

Germany and the UK are not ratifying, so that alone is a fatal barrier. A lot of it is due to EPO scandals, not just EU-related woes.

"Will there be greater alignment between EUIPO and EPO?"A couple more comments from yesterday [1, 2] highlighted a report from Stuttgarter-Zeitung.de (we are guessing that SUEPO might produce a translation soon). "The AC is reportedly looking for someone with "social competence" to lead the EPO," one of these comments said. There is another German article about this subject and it names Antonio Campinos (as did other publishers in Germany). Is he the next boss of the Office? Will there be greater alignment between EUIPO and EPO? Some people hypothesise that it's a real possibility. We wrote about that in past years and as recently as last month (more than once). The two 'agencies' already do some joint work (e.g. commissioned reports).

Kieren McCarthy, writing from San Francisco yesterday, revisited the EPO scandals yesterday. Under "Sorry, psycho bosses, it's not OK to keylog your employees" he mentioned Battistelli as follows, in light of the latest legal developments in Germany:

All of which is bad news for psycho bosses. It is, however, unlikely to impact one of the most recent high-profile cases of keylogging software on employees' computers – at the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich – even though that installation was done secretly by a special investigation force set up by EPO president Benoît Battistelli.

Why? Because the EPO claims it is not beholden to any national laws, given its status as an international organization.

None of that would change under Campinos, whose immunity is already a subject of controversy.

"None of that would change under Campinos, whose immunity is already a subject of controversy."One last comment said that "at least Battistelli still gets to order the most expensive plonk in exclusive restaurants in Brussels ..."

Is Campinos about to get Battistelli's penthouse? Maybe the excessive (waste of money) bodyguards too? We're not too sure, but whoever succeeds Battistelli will inherit one heck of a mess. We'll say more about that in our next post. ⬆