Bonum Certa Men Certa

The European Patent System is Nowadays Based on a 'Banana Republic' Model

UPC ambitions, not only EPO

Banana leaf



Summary: The undemocratic, unconstitutional, dishonest UPC lobby, in addition to an unaccountable, corrupt, oppressive and tyrannical EPO, have become a hallmark of what's wrong in the European patent system

THE EPO used to be pretty good (far better than the USPTO for a fact), but gone are the days of EPO leadership. The only leadership it can nowadays claim is leadership in corruption.



"The EPO is an ill organisation. Some EPO insiders nowadays refer to Battistelli as "cancer" or a "tumour"."Stakeholders (e.g. applicants) aren't happy, the public isn't happy, and even EPO staff isn't happy. Based on this new blog post, Märpel is probably EPO staff (with access to the access-restricted 'back end' of SUEPO's Web site) and his/her latest post notes that AT-ILO gives only the illusion that EPO staff has access to justice. To quote the concluding part:

Comments from Märpel:

(1): This was written in 2013. In 2018, that lack of independence is plainly obvious as the IAC simply always decides in favour of President Battistelli (2): Ditto. Nowadays, President Battistelli has no need to reject an opinion which is invariably in his favour. (3) and (5): Märpel shall come back to this, taking recent judgments of AT-ILO as examples. (4): or retribution. Remember the many managers made redundant in 2017? All the former members of the IAC who did not follow the recommendations in early years were made redundant.


The 'banana republic' which the EPO has become is no joking matter. People literally die due to it. Families (e.g. marriages) are being destroyed. Who gets rewarded? Basically a bunch of cronies who lack morals. A few hours ago we saw Patent Docs advertising this upcoming event ("Presentation on European Patent Strategies") and guess who's there:

...a panel discussion on European Patent Strategies by Alfred Keyack, EPO Attaché to the United States...


Keyack is a Battistelli hack, who was reporting from the US Embassy in Brazil until shortly before the Temer 'coup'. He sounds like the perfect fit for the Battistelli regime following the Battistelli 'coup' (friends and relatives from France taking over the Office).

The EPO is an ill organisation. Some EPO insiders nowadays refer to Battistelli as "cancer" or a "tumour". Considering the fact that Battistelli even chose his successor (the Frenchman Campinos), it may be terminal.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Freedom, Not Fame, is His Goal
pursuit of money can be not only tiring but also involve abandoning one's freedom
 
Microsoft Layoffs in October 2026
Microsoft is a market leader. In NDAs.
Links 08/09/2026: "The Green Revolution Has Failed Africa" and Palantir/Microsoft Harming NHS
Links for the day
Microsoft's Silent Layoffs Are the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft has a ton of layoffs all the time, but the media isn't mentioning those as no WARN notices get issued
SLAPP Censorship - Part 175 Out of 200: Implicit and Explicit Coalition Against the UK's SLAPP Industry
SRA recognises the problem
Further Transparency Problems at the EPO
The EPO was never meant to be profitable
Gemini Links 08/09/2026: "Everything Must Go", Announcing Perigee, and Presentations in a Browser
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 07, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, September 07, 2026
Alleged Manager at IBM Says "[t]here are likely to be a lot (and I meant, A LOT) of RAs before December."
"We’re getting pressure from above to put some team members on PIPs."
Links 07/09/2026: Amazon Cargo Plane Crash, .org/.net/.com Domains Considered Risky
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/09/2026: Cheese, Text-based Life, and Icons in Swaybar
Links for the day
Links 07/09/2026: Slop Trashes Memory of Parton, Flock Surveillance Infuriates Everyone
Links for the day
Getting Better After 20 Years
Exactly two months from now this site is turning 20
EPO Hiding Cocainegate and Abandoning Transparency (Even Access to Very Basic Information is Denied)
The EPO isn't just becoming like a private for-profit corporation. It's also becoming more secretive.
Richard Stallman Has Resurrected Lost Updates
We didn't ask about it
SLAPP Censorship - Part 174 Out of 200: Cascading Scandals and a Path Towards Much-Needed, Long-Awaited Reform
Reform the UK's law, not "Reform UK"
EPO's Gema Requena Sempere (PD People) Contacted Regarding Children With Disabilities
In the coming week we may be in fruitful contact with some media regarding EPO scandals
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Gemini Links 07/09/2026: Music Composition, Free Stuff, and Self-hosting Git Repos
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 06, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, September 06, 2026
People Who Enforce the GPL Banned From Linux Foundation Board (After Bribes From Prolific GPL Violators), Now They're Banned From Giving Talks at Events
about the "LF" ('Linux' Foundation)
Gemini Links 06/09/2026: The Slop Plagiarism 'Holy War' (Hype, Scam, Scheme), Burning CD-Rs, and Hardcopy Mono
Links for the day
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Inaction and Incompetence - Part IV - Insufficient Resources in the Face of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) by Lawyers
it's about 120KG
OpenStreetMap is the Future, Dictatorship is the Past
OpenStreetMap helped us check maps for transport, various overlays with addresses, and there was 0% reliance on GAFAM or "Google" anything
Silent Layoffs, Cool-down, and Cool-off: How GAFAM and IBM Operate (the Law Doesn't Apply to Them)
Laws? What laws?
How Strikes at the European Patent Office Are Seen by Striking Staff in Berlin, Germany
We have some more EPO scandals to cover later this year and next year
Association for Computing Machinery Cites Techrights in Relation to GemText and Gemini Protocol
published yesterday, Open Access
Links 06/09/2026: More XBox Trouble (Microsoft Unrest, Many Silent Layoffs This Month), John Duffy as Next USPTO General Counsel
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/09/2026: Avoiding 'Smart' 'Phones' and Setting up Gemini for the First Time
Links for the day
Links 06/09/2026: Sabotage by Slop and "What Happens If 'Open' 'AI' Dies?"
Links for the day
How Back Doors Became the 'Normal' or 'Norm'
"We also allowed a lethal monoculture to fester"
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Inaction and Incompetence - Part III - The SRA is Vastly Worse Than Brits Realise, We Have a "Wild West" in London
In the next part we'll begin looking at correspondence with the SRA
SRA and Manslaughter: How the SRA Contributed to Agony in Proprietary Software Scandals With Clear Misuse of "Without Prejudice"
Trying to prevent the public from finding out the criminal stuff that went on, resulting in many deaths
Canonical (or Ubuntu) Rejecting IRC Isn't the Widespread Trend
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) adoption still growing by some yardsticks
SLAPP Censorship - Part 173 Out of 200: Two Years
It was exactly 2 years ago that we filed lawsuits against Garrett
Linux of America
We could not help but notice GNU/Linux in North America yesterday
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 05, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, September 05, 2026
Gemini Links 06/09/2026: Internet Limiting (Limited Time Allotted) and Solar MiniServer
Links for the day
Eight Months of Strikes in EPO, Organised by the Staff Union (SUEPO) Also in Berlin
In Berlin, only one member of staff voted against the action plan