"Is something rotten at the State of EPO" is the question sent to us this morning along with some inside information about the European Patent Office.

"They still, for example, pretend that the EPO is a desirable employer."This relates to something we wrote earlier this month about "how to rebuild DG1 based on trusted managers," as our source put it.

"It exists a (of course non-official) white and a black list, with some directors moving from one list to the other to have the new DG1 structure ready for 1st January 2018.

"On the black list: all DG1 Directors considered too close to Staff Reps/SUEPO and those who refused to sign the pathetic support letter to the President (which the rumour has it was organised under ex-VP1 Minnoye by the zealot Principal Director Roberta Romano-Götsch, always prone to witch hunt for her masters)."

We wrote a lot about that at the time.

Our source continues: "On the white list: brave sheep ready to sell their (non-existing) soul since they have no respect (not even for themselves)."

Welcome to the 'new' EPO. It's a shadow of its former self, still mesmerised by -- and fantasising about -- the "old glory". If Battistelli surrounds himself with enough "yes men" who are cowards and won't tell him the truth, he might even believe that he has been successful. They still, for example, pretend that the EPO is a desirable employer. We will say more about it in our next post. ⬆