Summary: EPO-Handelsblatt attention diversion tricks may be effective as German media barely shows interest in one of the EPO's biggest scandals to date

THE EPO is in one of its worst situations ever. It's in crisis if not a total disaster and it's only a day away from the delegates' visit and meeting. Some EPO folks believe this is going to get "terse" or "nasty" later this week. One reader expects (or hopes) that Battistelli et al will end up in prison. To quote one message that we received today:

Corsican memorabilia

Let me share some thoughts on the famous Corcoran case. If I am right all actions started by Team Battistelli against the judge were decided on the basis of: a) a letter that Mr. Cororan sent by postal mail the the deputy Mayor in Saint Germain an Laye, and b) one e-mail internally sent from a public computer in the EPO premises and that was rather funny that defaming, and c) nothing else!!! Now my question is the following: How can the EPO justify that it was spying on THAT computer if the e-mail sent by Mr. Corcoran was his first e-mail? How can they justify the keyloggers?

The answer seems very simple to me: because the EPO was already spying on a public computer mainly used by patent attorneys using a keylogger and Mr. Corcoran was incidentally caught sending a private mail that didn't please Monsieur le président.

I may be a dreamer by I expect the immunity of the Team Battistelli to be lifted and the whole Team to finish up in jail, that is the place where criminals belong.

As SUEPO points out today, German politicians are starting to get involved. Peter Meyer and Gabi Schmidt, who has long attempted to help EPO staff, published this statement in German. Things are certainly heating up in Bavaria/Germany (because the EPO fails to obey the law), but will German media pay any attention? Any sites other than JUVE (and maybe Heise some time later)? From Meyer and Schmidt:

München. Das Europäische Patentamt (EPA) in München weigert sich, einen zu Unrecht suspendierten Richter der Beschwerdekammer wieder einzusetzen. So verweigert die Amtsleitung dem Richter weiterhin den Zugang zu seinem Arbeitsplatz und hindert ihn damit an der Ausübung seines unabhängigen Richteramts. Ein Gebaren, das gegen zwei letztinstanzliche Urteile des Verwaltungsgerichts der Internationalen Arbeitsorganisation (ILOAT) vom 6. Dezember 2017 verstößt.

Where is actual press coverage? There seems to have been far more coverage in English than in German even though these affairs are in Germany!

"There seems to have been far more coverage in English than in German even though these affairs are in Germany!"Check out the EPO's first three (re)tweets on Tuesday [1, 2, 3]. It's like they live in a different universe even a day ahead of major protests. Even Questel helped the EPO distract from these very major scandals. As we pointed out earlier today, the EPO is paying Handelsblatt yet again (it happened before alongside "media partners"), so don't expect it to report the latest EPO scandals. This is what the EPO (re)tweets throughout the day. It's repetitive and unoriginal.

It's worth noting that Questel has apparently just blocked me in Twitter (for merely pointing out that it helped the EPO shift attention). They probably don't like it when people tell its EPO story, which is itself a potentially big scandal. But anyway, we digress...

There were several more tweets like these throughout the day, mostly about the Handelsblatt nonsense (commissioned 'study'). There were even EPO retweets in French: "4e révolution #technologique : l'OEB @EPOorg confirme son essor, +54% demandes #brevet sur 3 ans ; le brevet comme indicateur d'évolution techno rapide #ICT #iA Intelligence artificielle objets connectés #4IR #4RI #innovation #technologie"

"Did the EPO sit on this so-called 'study' for a while, just waiting to unleash it as soon as things get hot and heavy?"This is an EPO publicity stunt which is paid for (at the expense of applicants) and is used to distract from massive scandals that applicants deserve and need to know about. We are very disappointed to see how WIPR (media which sometimes covers EPO scandals) plays along with puff pieces/PR (citing EPO/Handelsblatt), possibly for the illusion/perception of "balance". Knowing how things work in that 'news' room, I can't say I'm surprising...

No day would be complete without the daily #IPforSMEs nonsense (creating or maintaining the false impression that EPO management cares about SMEs), but what worries us a lot more is Handelsblatt's role in distracting the media and acting as a 'damage control' tool for the EPO. Did the EPO sit on this so-called 'study' for a while, just waiting to unleash it as soon as things get hot and heavy? Possibly. It's a well known PR strategy (attention diversion).

Handelsblatt would probably do for Blatter what it has just done for Battistelli (or Blatterstelli as some EPO insiders used to call him). ⬆