Bonum Certa Men Certa

Fishy Things Noticed Ahead of the Passage of a Lot of EPO Budget (Applicants' Money) to Battistelli's Other (and Simultaneous) Employer

PR firms hired from the United States as well

A view from Montmartre



Summary: Observations and odd facts regarding the affairs of the council in St Germain; it certainly looks like Battistelli as deputy mayor and the mayor (Arnaud Péricard) are attempting to hide something

THIS summer at the EPO will see the departure (at least on paper) of Battistelli and arrival of the "mini me", Mr. Campinos. That does not mean that Battistelli can be let off the hook; to allow such a system to remain unaccountable may be recipe for perpetuation of all the same problems under different presidency (same leadership but slightly different faces). This is why we're closely watching what media is possibly paid not to mention/cover. Battistelli's diplomatic immunity expires in about 40 days. He knows it.

"Battistelli's diplomatic immunity expires in about 40 days. He knows it."The EPO has once again hired Shepard Fox Communications. Whether it merely increases the contract around the time of the "inventor award" (as it worked with them last year as well) we don't know; we never managed to see the contract/s (leakers are strongly encouraged as the EPO should not sign such things secretly). Last year we asked, "Is the EPO Pushing Prepared 'Articles' (Ghostwriting)?"

It certainly seems so still.

"Just for information," one reader told us today. "The posting on Tech Rights links to an EPO press release and says: "This press release does not name a PR firm, for a change." But if you look carefully at the press release web page (see also the PDF version) it names the author as Peter Gorman of Shepard Fox Communications and even gives a contact phone number in the US:

Contact Information Peter Gorman Shepard Fox Communications +1 617-669-4329


This is different from the name we saw last year. The PDF version of the document also says (in the metadata) that the author is "Peter Gorman via PRWeb.com". So we know that the EPO is once again contracting people in the US for a European event. How much does that cost and how is this beneficial to Europe? FTI Consulting too is an American company. The EPO paid it a fortune (well over a million euros in just one year) to manipulate European media, with additional budget to mess around with Dutch and German publishers.

"So we know that the EPO is once against contracting people in the US for a European event."The "inventor award" is a symptom of a much broader problem, not just the passage of EPO money to the media but also rewards to frauds and charlatans, as we noted several hours ago. Is Battistelli the latest person to net a 'fat' reward, 'laundered' through "inventor award" contacts? Many EPO insiders certainly feel that way.

"He will be held accountable the sooner or the later," told us one reader. "He has also enemies in is own political party. I even believe this is the reason why the right wing party is split in St Germain. I had heard rumours, but even there people are afraid to talk: there was a "unexplained" casualty in St Germain about 10 years ago."

"Is Battistelli the latest person to net a 'fat' reward, 'laundered' through "inventor award" contacts? Many EPO insiders certainly feel that way."We'll probably get to that too at one stage. It took about 10 years for Battistelli's political patron (who it rumoured to have given Battistelli the job at the EPO) to face the music. Justice can be very slow. Especially when it comes to well-connected people in positions of power (or even immunity).

"I have detected something suspicious," the reader continued. "According to the agenda available in Internet, the next session of the town council is to be held on 21st. June. According to the video recording the next session is planned on 23rd May. Are they trying to hide something?"

We've asked around. "Good question," told us another reader. "The last council meeting was held on 11 April 2018," this reader noted. "At the very end of the video recording -- at around 1:26:20 -- the mayor (Arnaud Péricard) reminds the councillors that the next meeting is scheduled for 23 May and that it will be an "important session".

"However, the online agenda lists the next meeting on 28 June. If they are trying to hide something then all they have to do is to declare the meeting to be a "closed session".

"It took about 10 years for Battistelli's political patron (who it rumoured to have given Battistelli the job at the EPO) to face the music.""The following statement can be found on the council's webpage: Dans certains cas, le Maire peut donner la parole une fois que la séance est close. Les interventions du public et leurs réponses par les élus ne sont pas inscrites dans le compte-rendu du Conseil municipal.

[Translation: In some cases, the Mayor may give the floor once the meeting is closed. Public interventions and their responses by elected officials are not recorded in the minutes of City Council.]

"Maybe if it has been declared a closed session in advance, it doesn't appear on the online agenda. Either this is an accidental slip-up or it's a deliberate attempt to hide something. It definitely seems fishy but it's impossible to know for sure what is going on without inside information."

Stay tuned as we have plenty more coming regarding the "inventor award" and politicians at the council are paying attention (whether or not "big" publishers write about it).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Censorship of Information Unflattering to IBM (or GAFAM)
Years ago we gave a platform to a censored Microsoft whistleblower
Silent Layoffs at Microsoft in 2026
Time will tell is there are investigative journalists out there who will quit parroting Microsoft (e.g. false layoff figures) and relying on LLMs controlled by Microsoft to spew out false "facts" for them
SLAPP Censorship - Part 91 Out of 200: Legal Aid in Support of Freedom of the Press and British Women (Attacked by Americans)
bolstered by prominent counsels
Codecs and Software Patents - Part XII - GNU's Web Site Will Soon Have Many Recent Talks by Chief GNUisance Richard Stallman (RMS)
GNU videos being transcoded or converted into AV1
The Fall of Slop (Even Microsoft Admits There's a Problem)
If Microsoft admits that slop is too expensive and is for "entertainment purposes" because it cannot be relied upon, why would anyone other than the pushers and profiteers still insist that slop bears potential?
 
It's Friday Night Again, So Microsoft is Again Shelving (Under Weekend Lull) Nightmare News for XBox Staff
It did the same thing when the chiefs of XBox got canned
Links 29/05/2026: "Spyware Economy" and Cuba's Energy Crisis
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/05/2026: Rap Rant and LLMs Criticised
Links for the day
Akira Urushibata on Misleading Numbers From Anthropic's Project Glasswing (False Marketing by FUD Tactics)
Posted yesterday and approved a short while ago
[Video] Richard Stallman's Rapperswil (Switzerland) Talk Online
accessible without proprietary software
Trusting Trust is an Old Issue, Predating Rust and LLM Slop by Over Half a Century
Microsoft Lunduke wants to make a case against Rust and slop (LLMs), but the issues he addresses aren't exactly new or unique
California Should Have Abandoned So-called 'Age‑Verification Laws', Not Make Exemptions (for Now)
This has nothing to do with 1) children 2) safety 3) safety of children
Links 29/05/2026: Cory Doctorow on Why the Internet Feels So Broken, American Pope on Defederation
Links for the day
Techrights Does Not Censor Information About IBM, It Platforms and Retains Suppressed Voices From Inside IBM
They don't like it when people criticise the management [...] panic attacks mentioned
Bob (Robert) Cringely Devoted Three Years of His Life Trying to Profit From LLM Slop and Now He Sounds Off, It's Just Not Working and It Can Crash the Economy Soon
"The labs raising money at valuations with too many zeros are happy"
Techrights After About 60,000 Articles in 20 Years
Sites fail if they don't offer anything new or if they wrongly believe that adopting slop to parrot other sites will give them exposure
Organised Plunder or Robbery: GAFAM and Hardware Companies Rely on Media Bribery to Perpetuate False Narratives and to "Drive Sales" (and Drive Prices Upwards)
The price-fixing seems plausible and, if so, we need to demand action
Linux Foundation Destroys the Identity and History of Linux
Groklaw's PJ was thorn on the side of LF sponsors
The Problem of Microsoft Crimes
Opposing crime isn't "hatred"
Red Hat Will Die Inside a Dying IBM
IBM isn't where Red Hat came to thrive but where it came to die
Very Large Strike at the European Patent Office Today, "Production" Sank a Huge Deal
At this pace, we might be looking at tens of thousands fewer European Patents being granted this year
Gemini Links 29/05/2026: Leadership and Religion, the Board Game (Second Edition)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 28, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, May 28, 2026
Links 28/05/2026: Pakistan and Afghanistan Are Still Fighting, Iranians Back Online
Links for the day
"LLMs Are Not Much More Than Plagiarism Engines"
the impact of LLMs on communities and software projects
Is Slop Profitable Yet? No.
Everything is a giant minus
Bob (Robert) Cringely Has Just Explained That After 3 Years of Hard Work It Became Apparent LLM Slop is Unfit for Purpose in Courts
Added moments ago to Daily Links
Links 28/05/2026: LibreSSL 4.3.2, "Jeff Bezos Is Afraid Of What Comes Next", Measles Making a Comeback
Links for the day
PCs That Are Made to 'Expire' and 'Secure' Boot Contributing to Planned Obsolescence
People who are responsible for this ought to be held accountable
Evil, Faceless Corporation: Google Steals Money From You If You Don't Purchase an Android Device for MFA
At this point, under the guise of "hey hi" (slop) Google is firing tens of thousands of workers
People Go Back to Basics, Abandon Microsoft's GitHub to Avoid Slop
The media didn't pay any attention to GitHub's de facto chief quitting Microsoft only a few months ago
SLAPP Censorship - Part 90 Out of 200: When Efforts to Silence His Spouse and Also the Wife of a Blogger in Another Continent Only Give More Exposure to Embarrassing Information
The Garrett trial ended in October 2025
IBM - Much Like the European Patent Office (EPO) - Gives the President (Head of Board and CEO) All the Money While Staff Drowns in High Inflation Rates
They're discussing the same sort of thing we often see mentioned in the EPO
"THE REGISTER EXPLAINER" as "Paid-for SPAM" at The Register MS With "AI" 40 Times in the Short Page
What will be left of The Register MS in a few years?
2025: EPO President Campinos Breaks the Cookie Jar, Steals Another Million Euros While His "Brother-in-Law" Does Cocaine at the Office and Staff Prepares Rolling, Indefinite Strikes
any additional month of Campinos in charge of the EPO is a liability not just to the EPO but the EU as well
Gemini Links 28/05/2026: Dumping Microsoft GitHub, Gopher Rabbit Hole
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 27, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 27, 2026
Links 27/05/2026: TSMC Workers Next to Consider Strikes, Ceasefire Cracking
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 89 Out of 200: SRA Admits Malfunction, That's Why Transparency is Paramount
There have been more efforts than we can to count or can enumerate (probably over 100 such efforts) to gag us and to prevent us writing about what has happened
Our Free Software Activist in Connecticut (USA)
We'll soon revisit the latest round of legislation on "age" (surveillance, ID)
Links 27/05/2026: Living Without 'Smartphoones' and "Russia’s Biggest Attack on Ukraine in 18 Months"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/05/2026: The USA as an "Experiment" and Some Ubuntu Manuals
Links for the day
[Video] Full Video of Richard Stallman's Talk in Rome
It seems inevitable that the official GNU site will have it
Slop is a Passing Fad, It's About Faking Productivity (Plagiarism, Misinformation, and False Positives)
Slop is a bubble. Some people accept it later than others.
Anderon - Like Kyndryl - Could be Far Deeper in Debt Than Its Alleged Worth (Vapourware)
Time will tell, but it seems like a Federal-enabled (by the Federal Government) accounting scam, nothing more, nothing less
The Media That Keeps Covering "AI" Because the Pushers of It Pay for Spam
23 times in the page they mention "AI"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 26, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 26, 2026
Codecs and Software Patents - Part XI - The Stance of RMS (Dr. Stallman) Reassured GNU Regarding AV1
cautioned against software patents since the early 90s if not earlier