Bonum Certa Men Certa

Corruption at the European Patent Office and Systematic Bullying That Leads People to Suicide/Bankruptcy

The EPO, quite unsurprisingly, likes to legally bully (and potentially bankrupt) its critics

Gawker bullied
When multi-billion dollar operations/individuals simply litigate their critics into oblivion



Summary: A look back at 3 years of intensive EPO coverage and what's coming up next (suppression of truth behind closed doors in the courtrooms)

TECHRIGHTS started its special EPO coverage almost exactly 3 years ago and is now in the process of preparing another EPO series, this time coming from Croatia. As readers may have already noticed, earlier this month we felt more liberated/comfortable to simply label the EPO corrupt and openly accuse it of corruption. The evidence is simply overwhelming.



We are also exploring, more so at the moment, some Dutch affairs which would leave the EPO red-faced once made public. Both the story from Croatia and the story from Holland require access to court documents. This is why they take a long time to write about. We also haven't forgotten about ILO, whose latest judgments require careful analysis of courts' (or tribunals') decisions.

SUEPO is on the right side of history. EPO management is rather lucky that nobody among it (at least not yet) is in prison. The chief of the Organisation is leaving at the end of next month and the chief of the Office has only 10 months left. They will probably never be held accountable for anything. Immunity goes a long way...

"SUEPO doesn't care about [patent] quality," said this comment from yesterday, "it cares about the social and financial benefits of the workers..."

This comment overlooks the fact that those two things can be inherently connected/correlated. SUEPO probably recognises that examiners wish to be intellectually challenged (like whenever examining papers or doing peer review) and don't want to be reduced to assembly line workers who issue invalid (to later be invalidated) patents -- patents that are soon to be used for frivolous litigation that's against the public interest.

Here is the full comment: "The elite of very well paid and full of benefits public servants is discontent, but now interestingly they seem worried about "quality" of their job. If they do the job, they are fully responsible for such quality. SUEPO doesn't care about quality, it cares about the social and financial benefits of the workers, and that's legitimate. My question: who cares about the public interest in this "war"? Answer: as always, no-one!"

Actually, as a programmer myself, for me it was always about software patents and the interests of software developers, who want none of these software patents in Europe. It's universally true that programmers reject software patents and there are good reasons for that.

It's no secret that over the years we heard from many patent examiners. A lot of what we heard we never published (for risk of exposing the messenger). But we keep record of everything and shall the need or relevance arise, these issues will be aired responsibly.

Years ago we learned about some truly appalling stories which involve not only examiners but also staff representatives at the EPO. One particular story remained in our minds. We had begun working on a story which we still believe can be broken down as follows:

  1. EPO fires SUEPO person, without even notifying the person, and without telling the public


  2. EPO took advantage of illness in the family


  3. EPO showed hypocrisy on cancer


A lot of EPO workers are aware of this story. There are quite a few famous cases and this is probably one of them. A lot of these cases involve the exploitation of illness/injury, in the same way some farms in Florida are right now (as per today's news) getting rid of staff. It's not only illegal; it's morally corrupt. But that's what the EPO has become and since it's immune to lawsuits it does not fear accountability.

From our understanding, there are various people who are notorious for their mistreatment of ill staff. Yann Chabod, chief of HR directly under Elodie Bergot, is one of these people. There is much to be said also about the things done by Bergot and Željko Topić in relation to this. We never heard of anything even remotely like it at the USPTO.

How can anyone get away with it? Threats to cut pensions? Exploiting people's illnesses?

Off the record we often discuss why people are committing suicide at the EPO and what EPO management has done to these people. People out there wrongly assume that staff can simply choose the leave the EPO and go somewhere else, but it's not that simple. As one person once put it, "the Office might still be tempted to retaliate, maybe cutting my pension or similar."

This can be like a death knell to older employees, who will be able to sustain themselves financially without a pension (and often exhaust their savings on legal cases).

As someone once explained it to us, There are "cases that so far have afflicted the staff, some unknown to most, some others already known to public, including the suicide cases."

We would not be surprised if there are more suicides on the way. How many more people need to lose their lives due to legal bullying and systematic harassment by the EPO?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Google News
We've also just noticed more slop from UbuntuPIT
Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
 
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day
Slopwatch Appreciated by Real Authors of GNU/Linux Articles
We do try to keep on top of those things
Upgraded R.R.R.R.R.R. Today
The Web of 2025 is full of garbage, not limited to slopfarms
Freedom From Proprietary Prisons
Forking always an option
IBM's Watson Died in 1956, Now Watson Dies Again
IBM is becoming just a reseller of GAFAM and other stuff
Microsoft Says That Constant Mass Layoffs Are Success, the Media Isn't Buying This Microsoft Narrative Anymore
If people in the media feel an obligation to repeat whatever lies Microsoft tells, what point will there be to the media?
Links 08/10/2025: "Mali Puts Free Speech on Trial" And Apple Enforces Dictatorship
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: ‘Death to Spotify’ and Law to Ban Loud Commercials on Streaming (Dis)Services
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Real Innovation and Nina.chat is Dead
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Y2K38 Bug is a Vulnerability, Chat Control in Europe a Threat
Links for the day
How and Why Once-Legitimate Sites Turn Into Slopfarms
Many sites will go offline and many social control networks will shut down once they realise or even openly admit they spend money and time gardening a bunch of bots and slop
UbuntuPIT Became a Slopfarm and Gnoppix Tarnishes Its Own Brand With Slop
It fits all the characteristics of mildly-edited (if at all) slop
Slopwatch: Linux Journal and Other Slopfarms
GAFAM needs to go the way of the dodo
Gemini Links 08/10/2025: "Seek Seek Revolution" and Gradient Backgrounds
Links for the day
Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 07, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Stagnation of the Economy and What Free Software Can (or Could) Do For It
If your economic model is based on a pyramid of lies, it won't last very long
Social Control Media is Sinking
it would rightly seem like the era of centralised "social" sites (they're not social, they're about controlling the users) is ending, not overnight but gradually
Participation in Cancel Culture Detrimental to One's Career
A cautionary tale
Passion Wins
we've increased the number of birds we feed to 100+
How Solderpunk and Sean Conner Started Gemini Protocol (and, Collectively, Geminispace) Back in 2019
Based on the "official" history
Arduino is Now a Patent Bully (Qualcomm)
Qualcomm has just bought Arduino
Many Years of Microsoft Cancellations and Faked (Acquired) Revenue "Growth"
XBox is basically the "next Skype"
The Comment TheLayoff.com Has Just Censored for Criticising a Ridiculous Puff Piece of IBM Management
If comments get censored for their "style" rather than their substance, then society will be worse off
The Power of Writing Down Facts
The more we write and publish, the more people will know what happened
Microsoft's Non-Denying Denial About XBox's Death is Already Being Shattered to Pieces
Like Microsoft's 'open' 'hey hi', heralding meaningless non-committing agreements with AMD is little more than vapourware
Slopwatch: UbuntuPIT Joins the Slopfarms Club
Slopfarms gonna slop
Links 07/10/2025: Privacy at Risk, GAFAM Remains Off the Hook
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/10/2025: Modern Retro Console Idea and Batch vs Bash
Links for the day
Links 07/10/2025: International Criminal Court (ICC) Convicts Ali Kushayb; Moroccan Imprisoned for 'Offensive' Shirt
Links for the day
Links 07/10/2025: EU' Chat Control is Back, US Cracks Down on Democracy
Links for the day
Techrights Pursues Justice and Truth Because, Without Those, Society Descends Into Chaos
most people reject dogma and pseudoscience
Upcoming Talks by Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Göteborg, and Rome
Join with him and share the software
Something Bad is Happening in the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
The latest OSI blog post is from a Microsoft operative and a few weeks ago the Executive Director left
TLS 1.3 Dominates Geminispace (99% of Known Capsules)
it's nowadays safe to assume almost every capsule can handle TLS 1.3
Why soylentnews.org Has Been Having Technical Difficulties Lately
The network has been going up and down quite a lot this past week
A Statement Against Violence
The facts are on our side
They've Run Out of Things to Rebrand or Label as "AI"
The next few years will be interesting because if Microsoft lays off tens of thousands of workers each year, there won't be much left except mountains of debt and dying brands
The Register MS is Still Being Paid to Participate in the "AI" Ponzi Scheme Which Will Crash the Economy
The Register MS is hoping to get lucky by tricking people into a scam
Richard Stallman Confirms His Talk in Göteborg This Coming Friday
"The hosts say that the list will not be given to the state"
Most of the "Linux" Results This Morning in Google News Are LLM Slop From the Same Slopfarm, Plagiarising Phoronix
The main question is, does Google even care at this point?
Gemini Links 07/10/2025: Civil War and "Goodbye Web"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 06, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, October 06, 2025