Bonum Certa Men Certa

Antonio Campinos in Charge of the EPO Would Mean Greater EUIPO/EPO Overlap

EUIPO EPO logo



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.



Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft GitHub Exposé — In the Alex Graveley Case, His Lawyer, Rick Cofer, Appears to Have Bribed the DA to Keep Graveley (and Others) Out of Prison
Is this how one gets out of prison? Hire the person who bribes the DA?
Richard Stallman's Public Talk in GNU's 40th Anniversary Ceremony
Out now
Objections to binutils CoC
LXO response to proposed Code of Conduct
Conde Nast (Reddit), Which Endlessly Defamed Richard Stallman and Had Paid Salaries to Microsoft-Connected Pedophiles, Says You Must Be Over 18 to See 'Stallman Was Right'
Does this get in the way of their Bill Gates-sponsored "Bill Gates says" programme/schedule?
 
Links 29/09/2023: Linux Foundation Boasting, QLite FDW 2.4.0 Released
Links for the day
Red Hat Does Not Understand Community and It's Publicly Promoting Microsoft's Gartner
RedHat.com is basically lioning a firm that has long been attacking GNU/Linux in the private and public sectors at the behest of Microsoft
A 'Code of Conduct' Typically Promoted by Criminal Corporations to Protect Crimes From Scrutiny
We saw this in action last week
Techrights Extends Wishes of Good Health to Richard M. Stallman
Richard Stallman has cancer
endsoftwarepatents.org Still Going, Some Good News From Canada
a blow to software patents in Canada
The Debian Project Leader said the main thing Debian lacked was more contributors
The Debian Project Leader said the main thing Debian lacked was more contributors
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 28, 2023
IRC logs for Thursday, September 28, 2023
Links 28/09/2023: Openwashing and Patent Spam as 'News'
Links for the day
Links 28/09/2023: Preparing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.9 and 9.3 Beta
Links for the day
We Need to Liberate the Client Side and Userspace Too
Lots of work remains to be done
Recent IRC Logs (Since Site Upgrade)
better late than never
Techrights Videos Will be Back Soon
We want do publish video without any of the underlying complexity and this means changing some code
Microsoft is Faking Its Financial Performance, Buying Companies Helps Perpetuate the Big Lies (or Pass the Debt Around)
Our guess is that Microsoft will keep pretending to be huge, even as the market share of Windows (and other things) continues to decrease
Techrights Will Tell the Story (Until Next Year!) of How Since 2022 It Has Been Under a Coordinated Attack by a Horde of Vandals and Nutcases
People like these belong in handcuffs and behind bars (sometimes they are) and our readers still deserve to know the full story. It's a cautionary tale for other groups and sites
Why It Became Essential to Split GNU/Linux Stories from the Rest
These sites aren't babies anymore. In terms of age, they're already adults.
Losses and Gains in an Age of Oligarchy - A Techrights Perspective
If you don't even try to fix something, there's not even a chance it'll get fixed
Google (and the Likes Of It) Will Cause Catastrophic Information Loss Rather Than Organise the World's Information
Informational and cultural losses due to technological plunder
Links 28/09/2023: GNOME 45 Release Party, 'Smart' Homes Orphaned
Links for the day
Security Leftovers
Xen, breaches, and more
GNOME Console Won’t Support Color Palettes or Profiles; Will Support Esperanto
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Let's Hope GNU Makes it to 100
Can GNU still be in active use in 2083? Maybe.
GNU is 40, Linux is Just 32
Today it's exactly 40 years since Richard Stallman sent a message regarding GNU
GNU/Linux and Free Software News Mostly in Tux Machines Now
We've split the coverage
Links 27/09/2023: GNOME Raves and Firefox 118
Links for the day
Links 27/09/2023: 3G Phase-Out, Monopolies, and Exit of Rupert Murdoch
Links for the day
IBM Took a Man’s Voice, Pitting Him Against His Own Work, While Companies Profit from Low-Effort Garbage Generated by Bots and “Self-Service”
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer