The "Inventor Award" charade and EU-IPO's latest 'study' are all about Battistelli€® and Campinos€®, respectively

Summary: Expect more of the same at the EPO when António Campinos takes over (same symptoms seen already) and also expect crooked Battistelli to never be held accountable by a Campinos-run EPO

THE management of the EPO has become monarchical unlike anything we have ever seen at the USPTO. António Campinos, for example, was basically 'selected' by Battistelli, a fellow Frenchman. Insiders say that he's a good friend who intends to keep all of Battistelli's mates at the top of the Office. Battistelli wants to have his name almost literally engraved at a pedestal. This might be expected somewhere like the Soviet Union, but no... this is today's EPO.

"...they proudly claim to be the very opposite of what they are."At the USPTO we saw the Trump-connected Director Iancu put in charge and some other officials being hired/promoted by nepotism (family connections) -- a subject last revisited a few days ago in this tweet: "Tony Scardino continues to push for Pam Isom as the CIO according to sources. This is a grave mistake, Isom is completely clueless when it comes to IT. She spent half a billion and delivered nothing. Scardino just wants a puppet CIO. Hopefully the new Dir will hire outside."

According to this watchdog, nepotism can you get you a top job at the USPTO, so apparently not only Battistelli does this. But watch this utterly laughable "news" (warning: epo.org link) item published yesterday about "diversity" (just shortly before the Inventor Award charade). North Korea would envy such propaganda levels: the male-dominated, French-nominated/dominated management of an under-qualified politician (Battistelli) now tries to boast about "diversity at the EPO". To quote:

In a time of worldwide reports of gender inequality in the work environment, the EPO took this opportunity to visibly reaffirm its commitment to diversity and inclusion and highlight its stance as an equal opportunity employer.

"Together for Diversity" is a multi-phased and participative programme built on the input of EPO staff. Everyone was invited to share their views on the EPO's gender diversity culture in an online survey ahead of the conference. In addition, the EPO facilitated group discussions with its staff to learn more about attitudes, possible unconscious bias, challenges and opportunities.

They wrote not one but two tweets about it [1, 2], the first claiming that the "EPO hosted a conference on gender diversity at its Munich premises to celebrate the Charta der Vielfalt's 6th #DiversityDay with its staff."

The EPO did similar stunts before (we wrote about these).

The EPO talking about gender diversity? Where? Management? Even SUEPO mocked such claims. "Reflecting on yesterday’s Diversity Conference," they wrote later. "We count ourselves fortunate to have talented people from 34 different countries working at the EPO. Diversity is part of our DNA."

"This is too optimistic in my personal view because nothing suggests that Campinos will be better (except the name, age and background)."What diversity? Look at the management team. French males mostly. And all just 'happen' to be pretty well connected to Battistelli (some are former colleagues and family).

This is very much along the same lines as the "quality" propaganda (they have a “Working Party for Quality” [1, 2]); they proudly claim to be the very opposite of what they are. Days ago they cited their mouthpieces at IAM regarding quality. Quite the timing, eh?

Well, thankfully, Battistelli leaves in a few weeks. "The last "moronade" of the Battistelli era," told us one reader, is as follows:

The countdown is started: in less than 4 weeks the mafioso Battistelli will lose immunity. In the meantime signore Battistelli is presenting his last moronade, the infamous inventor of the year award. Is he going to promote criminals or charlatans this time? Or may be friends? With moronistelli everything is possible, yet the possibilities are now limited by the time. we all love BBQ: Benoit Battistelli Quits! 4 weeks and he's gone, bon debaras!

In any case the media partner Les Echos is providing a a thorough brown nose service.

Here is a link.

This is too optimistic in my personal view because nothing suggests that Campinos will be better (except the name, age and background). He's a former banker who is so loyal to Battistelli and probably "owes him one" (for the job). They even swap seats at CEIPI, so it's like they're connected by the hip. Remember that both are French (Campinos was born in France, his mother is French, he studied in France and so on) and can exchange 'codified' jokes about union-busting in their native tongue (they're not German speakers in spite of being based in Munich). Considering Campinos' background in a notorious (corrupt) Portuguese bank, we don't suppose he'll deal with accounting in a way that actually questions Battistelli's spendings, including spendings on Campinos' new private pub at the top floor. This former banker won't scrutinise Battistelli's passage of millions of euros to his other employer earlier today (about 5 million euros for one afternoon at a theatre managed by Battistelli himself). It's like one happy family -- a 'royal' family -- at the EPO. All the money 'invested' in media/publishers is going to work in favour of this 'royal' family (the money wasted by Battistelli literally paying these European publishers won't be returned, it will only be remembered with hopes of more from the same palm). We don't expect corruption to attract any real journalism, definitely not from blogs like IP Kat. Where does this leave us? Is there much hope?

"We don't expect corruption to attract any real journalism, definitely not from blogs like IP Kat."Yesterday the EPO was retweeting this EU-IPO tweet. It's all about the EU-IPO's chief (quoted extensively) who will soon head the EPO. We're familiar with this pattern. Yesterday we saw several dozens of articles quoting him e.g. [1, 2] in English and lots more in various European languages. It's all about António Campinos. It's personifying the EU-IPO and we expect the EPO's site to soon become all about Battistelli's mate, Campinos (selected by abuse, by Battistelli himself). If he's all over the news this week, under the EU-IPO wing (so-called 'study'), imagine what it'll be like when he takes over the EPO. More of the same... ⬆