THE PRESIDENT of the EPO has been almost invisible lately (recent weeks). The new Director of the USPTO has said barely a word before and after taking Office. Both are scheduled to appear in some distant IAM event, but that's about it.
"The USPTO, according to rumours we heard before, has an EPO-type scandal."A couple of years ago and again a couple of months ago we wrote about the CIO of the EPO [1, 2] in addition to the connection to Battistelli.
Two days ago a Twitter account called CIO_Watchdog ("USPTO CIO Watchdog") wrote: "PTO CIO management is hot water again as rumors, stating Pam Isom allegedly, hired her nephew by marriage? We have received countless communication on this subject, and hopefully the new Dir will resolve as it effects morale. You might recall the Chiles saga. PTO has a history..."
Just to be clear, this is not a prank account as some people close to the USPTO are retweeting it. They know the above-mentioned names. It may be like a whistleblower (insider) account.
"Last year the EPO intentionally omitted all the negatives (we wrote many articles about that) and concealed that fact that EPO patent applications had overall declined in number."This may get interesting in the near future. We heard similar things before (about USPTO irregularities and also nepotism), but there have been no whistleblowers. If some whistleblowers out there wish to send us information and material, we're all ears. We have never compromised a source since we started 12 years ago.
As a side note about the EPO, its Twitter account says almost nothing of interest. It's mostly repeating old tweets (like they're shelved templates reused). But yesterday it wrote :"What was 2017 like for patents and the EPO? Find out in one week when we publish our annual report!"
We are ready to have a closer look at it when it's out. Last year the EPO intentionally omitted all the negatives (we wrote many articles about that) and concealed that fact that EPO patent applications had overall declined in number.
"Backlog is drying up fast, rendering them redundant."Several months ago Battistelli lowered some fees and repeatedly advertised this 'discount', hoping perhaps to hide the decline in patent applications. So we're ready to take that into account (one can measure patent applications in terms of revenue rather than number).
Last night the EPO did something rather amusing. It published this news item (warning: epo.org link) titled "Validation agreement with Cambodia enters into force" and we're pretty certain that the many EPO stakeholders in Cambodia were truly excited. All zero of them! Cambodia has ZERO European Patents (EPs) [1, 2], so the EPO under Battistelli has truly become self-satirising.
"European patents granted by the EPO and validated in Cambodia will have the same legal effects as a corresponding Cambodian patent and will be subject to Cambodian patent law," says last night's statement.
Cambodia is a former colony of France and a cheap publicity stunt for the disgraced Frenchman who is leaving the Office in exactly 4 months from now. The cronies whom he brought to the Office will get to keep their jobs, whereas hard-working staff whom he mentally tortured is said to be on the way out. The "thank-you" or the reward for all the hard work (rigging the annual reports with low-quality patents) will be sacking. Backlog is drying up fast, rendering them redundant. ⬆