And more so, a perception of aggressive and dangerous staff

Summary: The EPO follows that familiar pattern of writing about every Islamic terror attack in Europe (and in the US too) while media in Munich tells a story where facts are yet uncertain

THE US patent office is still without a head. We'll write quite a lot about it over the weekend. As for the EPO, its two bosses are on their way out (Office and Organisation).

Today, some time after the Barcelona terror attack, the EPO characteristically leaped at the opportunity to piggyback a crisis; it didn't take long for EPO critics to come up with cynical replies like "LOL: EPO believes in an open and inclusive society based on of freedom, equality, justice and tolerance" (that same old phrase it so typically uses when it writes about such inhumane disasters).

"Today, some time after the Barcelona terror attack, the EPO characteristically leaped at the opportunity to piggyback a crisis..."When terror attacks hit the US (last year) Battistelli wrote to Michelle Lee an open letter, basically piggybacking the events in the US to paint himself (and perhaps the US patent office) as collateral/victim of these attacks. Collective thinking. We covered that at the time.

Since the EPO's Web site has devolved into a shrine of Battistelli, it's hardly surprising that only he has a blog there and a recurring theme is terror. A very large proportion of the "news" in that site is about terror attacks. We have already explained/outlined likely motivations for that.

This morning we got told about these two articles [1, 2].

"Reports of suspected arson attempt in Munich," a source told us, were being published. "The local Munich press has published reports of a suspected arson attack on the house of an EPO Director in Unterhaching (a suburb of Munich).

"According to the news reports, the matter is under investigation by the Munich police.

"For the moment there is no information available which would indicate whether this incident might have been work-related or whether it was a purely private matter."

"Since the EPO's Web site has devolved into a shrine of Battistelli, it's hardly surprising that only he has a blog there and a recurring theme is terror."We wanted to wait for a while and find out if there's an imminent discussion about EPO bodyguards and security-related contract renewals some time soon (perhaps the meeting next month) because the infamous bicycle tale of Battistelli coincided with/overlapped the budget discussion (the last time he got approval for six bodyguards at a tremendous cost). We wrote about half a dozen articles about it at the time.

We don't intend to suggest that any of this is fake. "At the moment," however, a source told us "there is no more information available. The incident has been mentioned by the Munich Police on its website" where it says this:

1280. Brand auf der Terrasse eines Reihenhauses – Unterhaching Am Dienstag, 15.08.2017, bemerkten Nachbarn in den frühen Morgenstunden, gegen 03.55 Uhr, einen Brand auf der Terrasse eines Reihenhauses in der Truderinger Straße in Unterhaching. Sofort verständigten sie die Feuerwehr „112“ und begannen selbst mit mehreren Feuerlöschern den Brand zu löschen.

Auf der Terrasse brannte ein dort aufgerichteter Holzstapel. Die Flammen hatten bereits die Holzterrasse und den darüber liegenden hölzernen Balkon erfasst. Außerdem brannten die Rahmen des Wohnzimmerfensters sowie der Terrassentür.

Durch die starke Hitzeentwicklung sprangen Fenster- und Türscheiben.

Ein Übergreifen der Flammen in den Wohnbereich konnte gerade noch durch den beherzten Einsatz der Nachbarn und der Freiwilligen Feuerwehr Unterhaching verhindert werden.

Durch den Brand entstand ein geschätzter Schaden von ca. 20.000 Euro.

Personen wurden nicht verletzt.

Die Brandermittlungen wurden durch das Fachkommissariat 13 aufgenommen. Die Beamten schließen es nicht aus, dass der Holzstapel mit einem flüssigen Brandbeschleuniger vorsätzlich angezündet worden ist.

Bei einer Absuche der Umgebung wurde ein frischer Brandfleck auf dem Asphalt und ein intensiver Geruch nach Benzin oder Diesel im Abgang einer dortigen Tiefgarage festgestellt.

Zeugenaufruf: Personen, welche Hinweise zu dem Brand von gestern, Dienstag, 15.08.2017, in der Truderinger Straße, geben können, werden gebeten sich mit dem Kommissariat 13 des PP München unter der Rufnummer 089/2910-0, oder jeder anderen Polizeidienststelle in Verbindung zu setzen.

"Apparently," a source told us, "the director in question is Italian and does not have a reputation for being "staff-friendly". But that does not necessarily mean that the incident was work-related."

If anyone can shed more light on that, it will certainly help because no doubt Battistelli is going to exploit it somehow. Battistelli has long milked perceived threat to give himself more powers. According to recent reports from Germany, he has not given up on his job, either. ⬆