Bonum Certa Men Certa

2018 Starts at the EPO and Both EPC and UPC Are in State of Crisis

European authorities have begun taking the Rule of Law more seriously

Rule of Law: European Commission acts to defend judicial independence in Poland
Reference: Rule of Law: European Commission acts to defend judicial independence in Poland



Summary: The situation at the EPO is becoming worse than untenable and the end of Battistelli's tenure within less than half a year won't be the end of it all

THE EPO reopens this week and scandals are guaranteed to resume shortly. Patrick Corcoran, for example, is now under the control of Battistelli. EPO insiders don't expect that to last very long; it's not an expression of a wish but merely an expectation.



We are meanwhile trying to pursue the famous Baranès letter (he is a former Vice-President, who resigned quickly). We even attempted to ask him directly for a copy. "Whether he'll agree "spit in the soup" remains to be seen," one reader told us. "He's still part of the "system", and there might be possible means of reprisal against him. There's also the question of the strength of his opinions. But he's also reached retirement age, and collecting his pensions."

"Honestly," said another reader, "if I were Battistelli I would book a flight to some remote place, change my name never show up again."

There's belief that expiry of Battistelli's diplomatic immunity will soon doom him.

“Honestly, if I were Battistelli I would book a flight to some remote place, change my name never show up again.”
      --Anonymous
The reader explains that "the situation is becoming each day more surreal: the metastasis within Team Battistelli are fighting each other to further rise the ladder and extend the cancer. For the time being just rumours, but with my little experience of (EPO) life, it has always been the case. It is a very difficult exercise to remain a favourite minion when the king changes."

Things are already heating up again. Aside from internal complaints about the budget of the EPO (noted an hour ago), there's the Patrick Corcoran situation to watch out for. There's now a whole (fairly long) Wikipedia article about it. As one comment put it this week, this can end the UPC ambitions for good:

In this respect, it would be very interesting indeed if a member of the Boards of Appeal were to provide testimony to the BVerfG on the issue of independence ...

Article 22 - Disclosure in legal proceedings (1) A permanent employee shall not, without permission from the President of the Office, disclose, on any grounds whatever, in any legal proceedings, information not already made public of which he has knowledge by reason of his duties. ...


This was one of the pretexts used by Battistelli to go after Corcoran.

Someone going by the name Francesca (may be a real name) then said:

BoA members are NOT permanent employees. Therefore Article 22(1) ServReg does not apply to BoA members... But after this comment, the next "periodical update of the ServRegs" will undoubtedly "update" this article.


Also regarding the EPC, Francesca appeared in this new comment on another blog:

Regarding a diplomatic conference: staff has asked several times for it. The EPC 2000 even inserted a specific article, as at the time of drafting the EPC 2000 the UPC discussions were not closing to an end, and therefore any possibly necessary amendment of the EPC for this was postponed. To discuss these matters, the contracting states decided to meet at at least misterial level at least once each five years to discuss the progress and possible necessary amendments of the EPC.

Furthermore, monsieur Président has been asked by staff during one of his famous “meet the president” happenings, why the AC has not started any preparations for one of these ministerial conferences according to article 4a EPC when the AC asked for proposals regarding the DG3/BoA reforms.

His answer was, that he does not want a diplomatic conference. If politicians would meet, that would be like opening a can of worms: you can set a schedule, but the results will be completely unforseeable.

Also: some 30 years ago, there have been proposals to hire new BoA members only under the condition, that once their technical board has been issued new (or renewed) contracts, their board would move to Berlin. This would’ve resulted in a separation of the BoA from the EPO managements main building within 10 years, thus delivering the increased perception of independence.

The proposal included moving supervisory elements of the EPO (IT development, audit, finances) to Berlin too, and thus over some 20 years stop examination in Berlin.


Yesterday we wrote about the origins/genesis of the EPO. A source of ours spoke of the "triangular exchange," alluding (at the time) to talks of "DG3 to Vienna, Vienna to Berlin, and Berlin to Munich... The more, the merrier." The EPO is primarily a cash cow of Germany and if BVerfG managed to defy the financial agenda/interests, then 2018 promises to be a historic year for the EPO.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Parties and Milestones Again
we've begun putting up about 40 balloons
Microsoft is Disloyal Towards Its Most Loyal Employees
Against its most faithful enablers
Following the Line of Cocaine All the Way to the Top
Even a million denials and spin-doctoring won't distract from the core issue
Thankfully We've Made Copies of More Interesting Data From statCounter
If statCounter (the Web site or the 'webapp') vanished overnight, we'd still have something left of it
More Silent Layoffs at IBM/Red Hat
when the media counts such layoffs or presents tallies the numbers are very incomplete
 
PETA and Activism
Being staff or volunteer in PETA isn't easy
Big Blue, Huge Debt
debt will soar again
Links 27/10/2025: Mass Surveillance Sold as "AI", People Reluctant to Lose Physical Media
Links for the day
Techrights' 19th Anniversary: Bronze
Time to go back to preparing for this anniversary
Our Latest European Patent Office (EPO) Series Will Last Several Weeks, Will Ask the EPO Management and the European Union (EU) Very Difficult Questions
If nobody loses a job (or jobs) over this, then the EU basically became no better than Colombia or Nicaragua
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, Brian Fagioli, and Google News
We focus on stories that are fake or LLM slop that disguises itself as "news" about Linux
Links 27/10/2025: Wikipedia Vandalism, Bruce Perens Opens up on Childhood
Links for the day
This Site Could Not be Done by LLMs Even If It Wanted to (Because It's Not a Parrot of What Other Sites Say)
LLMs have no knowledge or deep understanding
19 Years, No Censorship
No factual information is ever going to be removed, more so if it is in the public interest
We Are Not a Conventional Site, That's Why They Hate (or Love) Us
Throughout the week this week we'll be focusing on the EPO
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part I: António Campinos Brought Corruption and Nepotism to the EPO, Then Came the Cocaine
High-level manager at the European Patent Office (EPO) caught in public with cocaine, the Office has some answering to do
Purchasing/Possessing Computers Isn't the Same as Controlling Computers
Let's strive to put computers back under the control of their users, no matter who purchased these (usually the users)
Gemini Links 27/10/2025: Alhena 5.4.3 and Fixing Bash
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 26, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 26, 2025
Links 26/10/2025: Microsoft Spies on Gamers, Open Transport Community Conference
Links for the day
Links 26/10/2025: LLM Slop / Plagiarism Programs Continue to Disappoint, CISA Layoffs Threaten Systems
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/10/2025: Gemsync and Joining the Small Web
Links for the day
India.com a Click-baiting, SEO-Spamming, Slopfarming Heap
They do this almost every day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 25, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, October 25, 2025
Without XBox Consoles, XBox is No More, It's Just a Brand (More Rumours of Microsoft Ending XBox, Then Laying Off Lots of Staff)
All signs indicate that Microsoft wants to "exit" the XBox business (not brand), but it does not want to publicly admit this as it would alarm staff and shareholders
Gemini Links 25/10/2025: Portugal, Midnightpub, and "Tech Right Admins"
Links for the day
Almost 2026 Already (When We Turn Twenty)
In just over a year the site will turn 20
When "Sponsored Feature" in The Register MS Means Ponzi Scheme Promotion From the Communist Party of China (CPC)
the promotion of a financial scam
Week of EPO Leaks: Workers of the EPO Are Getting a Pay Cut While Prices Rise Fast
More to come in the next few days
Microsoft is Finally Giving Up on XBox, The Chief Says the Grapes Are Sour Anyway
Microsoft loses hundreds of dollars on each XBox that it sells
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Various Slopfarms Propped up by Google News
Why can't Google News do better than this?
Links 25/10/2025: Two New Smokescreens for Scam Altman and ‘TikTok USA’ Remains in Limbo
Links for the day
Bad faith: can't change Debian Social Contract (DSC) without unanimous consent of every joint author
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Confirmed: Very Close Friend of Bill Gates and Microsoft's Biggest Patent Troll Nathan Myhrvold Flew the Lolita Express (a Gateway to Pedophilia), According to Bill Gates-Sponsored Seattle Times
There is no speculation or any "conspiracy theories" here;' those are verified facts
Gemini Links 25/10/2025: "The Highest Leader of The Global Civil Society Community", SSL Certificates Causing Bitrot
Links for the day
Links 25/10/2025: Target Layoffs and "Shutdown Sparks 85% Increase in US Government Cyberattacks"
Links for the day
"Big Data" Was a Big Lie
Remember "Big Data"? Remember "Data Scientists"...?
statCounter Has Been Broken for a Long Time
Considering the huge proportion of Web requests that come from LLM bots (more so this past year or two), statCounter may struggle to justify the operating costs
Techrights Anniversary Party on November 7th
Let us know if you need any accommodation-related arrangements
Trends That Must Alarm Microsoft and Mozilla
Expect Firefox to no longer be supported by various sites in the US
Why Microsoft Became the Layoffs Leader
The corporate media is projecting or signalling its own dishonesty when it tells us that Microsoft is a very "valuable" company while the data shows Microsoft is also a "market leader" in layoffs
Speaking for Ourselves and Letting the Facts Speak for Themselves
we've already published over 50,000 pages
For Second Time in a Day The Register MS Takes Money From Private Companies to Sell a Ponzi Scheme
Do not have empathy for those who have zero empathy towards you
IBM is Misleading IBM Shareholders
IBM is still all about vapourware and buzzwords
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 24, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 24, 2025