Bonum Certa Men Certa

António Campinos Has Run Out of Time, EPO Staff Representation Now Views Him as Just Another Battistelli and Wants Immediate Change

Campinos and Battistelli in 2011



Summary: Frenchmen António Campinos and Battistelli (above) continue to poison life at the EPO, harming not only the institution itself but also many people who depend on it or are impacted by its low-quality patent grants

THE management at the European Patent Office (EPO) is still gagging and threatening staff representatives (this was removed last week), denying them even the ability to speak to people whom they represent, i.e. persistent union-busting by Bergot as a 'front' for António Campinos, who either fails to control her or silently sanctions everything (to make himself look benign while he's a silent aggressor). People are starting to understand this and the term "mini Battistelli" was used some days ago (in concluding a meeting of the union).



To the Heads of Delegation of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation the following message has just been sent:

Dear Heads and Members of the Member States' Delegations to the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation, dear Chairman,

One of the main tasks the Administrative Council has entrusted Mr Campinos with is the improvement of social dialogue and the mitigation of the social tensions created by his predecessor.

We appreciate that President Campinos has issued several promising declarations of intent, and hope that they will now be swiftly followed by concrete actions.

We bring two recent publications on EPO disciplinary cases to your attention. They are attached to this message.

The staff considers most of the disciplinary measures taken by Mr Battistelli unfair, in particular those which targeted staff representatives, union officials and a Board of Appeal judge. During a general assembly this week, Munich staff requested through a resolution that the damage done to their elected representatives be repaired and ongoing disciplinary proceedings be stopped. They also support the case of the staff representative and union official in The Hague whose case is currently pending at the ILO Tribunal.

Genuine social dialogue can obviously only take place when such restoration and compensation for the abuses of Mr Battistelli and his administration have taken place. Solving these issues would further help to overcome the persistent atmosphere of intimidation, and allow the staff to fully focus on the work to be done.

Mr Campinos’ “trust capital” is already starting to erode. We therefore urge you to support him in introducing the changes the staff requests in its resolution. This would send a clear and positive signal to all EPO stakeholders, and help restoring the reputation of the Organisation.

The EPO-FLIER Team, a group of concerned staff of the European Patent Office who wish to remain anonymous due to the prevailing harsh social climate at the Office

Attachments: EPO-FLIER No. 42 “Status of EPO disciplinary cases”, and CSC publication “Staff Representation Disciplinary Cases – Urgent action needed” (sc18151cp, which was made available to the staff and distributed in the EPO cantines)


Over at IPPro Patents, Barney Dixon has just published this article about SUEPO's complaint:

The Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) has called for EPO president António Campinos to drop charges against one staff union member and reinstate another in full in order to restore social dialogue at the office.

In a general assembly, staff of the EPO gathered in view of SUEPO’s coming elections and voted on a resolution that has now been submitted to Campinos.

The resolution notes that Campinos has ordered a new disciplinary committee hearing against former chairperson of SUEPO Munich and chair of the EPO’s local staff committee in Munich, Elizabeth Hardon, with previous charges that were thrown out by the International Labour Organisation’s Administrative Tribunal (ILOAT).

SUEPO said that the ILOAT had already “castigated” the EPO administrative behaviour in two other cases against Ion Brumme and Malika Weaver.


Composed and published anonymously was also this new article from Kluwer Patent Blog:

The Administrative Council of the European Patent Office must act and support president António Campinos in initiatives to end ‘the persistent atmosphere of intimidation’ at the EPO.

That is the message of a letter which was sent to the heads of delegation of the Administrative Council (AC) earlier this week by the EPO-FLIER Team, ‘a group of concerned staff of the European Patent Office who wish to remain anonymous due to the prevailing harsh social climate at the Office.’ EPO-FLIER has been active since 2014.

[...]

According to EPO-FLIER, it appreciates ‘that President Campinos has issued several promising declarations of intent, and hope[s] that they will now be swiftly followed by concrete actions.’

However, so far little or nothing has changed for people who came into conflict with Battistelli and were sanctioned, according to EPO-FLIER, which published a document on the status of EPO disciplinary cases earlier this month. ‘The staff considers most of the disciplinary measures taken by Mr Battistelli unfair, in particular those which targeted staff representatives, union officials and a Board of Appeal judge. During a general assembly this week, Munich staff [the Central Staff Committee] requested through a resolution that the damage done to their elected representatives be repaired and ongoing disciplinary proceedings be stopped. They also support the case of the staff representative and union official in The Hague whose case is currently pending at the ILO Tribunal.

Genuine social dialogue can obviously only take place when such restoration and compensation for the abuses of Mr Battistelli and his administration have taken place. Solving these issues would further help to overcome the persistent atmosphere of intimidation and allow the staff to fully focus on the work to be done.

Mr Campinos’ “trust capital” is already starting to erode. We therefore urge you to support him in introducing the changes the staff requests in its resolution’, EPO-FLIER wrote to the AC representatives of the EPO’s 38 member states, who act as the Office’s supervisory body.


Mind the first and sole (so far) comment:

Nothing is changing under Campinos since he has arrived last July.

He merely finishes the job of Battistelli and this with the precious help of Battistelli’s protégée Elodie Bergo. It is no surprise that his trust capital is eroding fast since his lovely words are not fooling the highly educated EPO workforce.

Also not to be forgotten, the production pressure on staff is not decreasing (so much for real patent quality), the exhaustion among staff remains at unsustainable levels coupled to fear of abusive sanctionings, which is the recipe for disaster (one may only wonder when the next suicide will occur only next time it will not be associated with Battistelli any longer).

Many elderly staff are leaving the EPO sooner than they thought since they cannot stand the circus any more, and also worrying more and more new comers are leaving the sinking ship after 2 to 3 years only.

I would advise all job applicants to have a look at this before applying https://www.glassdoor.de/%C3%9Cberblick/Arbeit-bei-EPO-EI_IE198808.11,14.htm


SUEPO is still very quiet and secrective; it self-censors a lot. As the above puts it: "Nothing is changing under Campinos since he has arrived last July."

Will temperatures rise again in 2019? Passivity isn't helping as staff numbers dwindle (downsizing).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Russia Set to Ban Facebook?
If WhatsApp is made to "leave", that means Facebook or "Meta".
Taking Stock of a Good and Productive Week
We shall now be taking a break, unpacking the new hard drive (8 TB), and making backups of everything
Ageism in Tech
Your protocol is "old"...
In Norway, Android/Linux Has Just Hit All-Time High (First Time Since 2020), GNU/Linux Already Very Prevalent
Despite its small population size, Norway gave us Qt and many other things
Microsoft's Mass Layoffs Very Wide-Ranging, Media Focused on Gaming Though Microsoft Mass-Firing Lawyers and "AI" Staff (Contradicting Its Supposed "Investment" in "AI")
Microsoft plans to fire almost half a thousand people in legal roles
2012 Article About the Free Software Foundation Blasting Canonical/Ubuntu Over Adoption of "Secure" Boot (Microsoft's Remote Control Over GNU/Linux Since PCs' Power-on)
By Katherine Noyes (article has since then became 404, not found)
 
Gemini Links 20/07/2025: Summertime and OCC25 Wrap-up
Links for the day
Jamie Zawinski Complained About Wayland, Then Decided to Give It a Go, Now Complains Again About Wayland
Ask IBM (Red Hat) why it's worth throwing so much away just for Wayland fanaticism
Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu, LinuxSecurity, and More
former "Linux" blogs which basically became slopfarms
Links 20/07/2025: More GAFAM Lawsuits, Layoffs, and SLAPPs
Links for the day
Nice Recovery (From Actual Fire) by PCLinuxOS, New Version of PCLinuxOS Released, Now Top of DistoWatch
PCLinuxOS is a community-driven distro
More Microsoft Shutdowns That Mostly Slipped Under the Radar
Remember what happened to books 'sold' by Microsoft?
Microsoft Lunduke Still Fighting Cancel Culture With... Cancel Culture
There will be no "winners" in such 'debates'
The History of Daily Links and Politics
"I support Wayland, but I also support abortion..."
Microsoft is at 0% "Market Share" in Most Areas
Depending on the taxonomy chosen, there may be dozens of categories other than desktops and laptops
"The moment MSFT stock fails to start tumbling, that’s the beginning of another corporate giant going under."
There are far more layoffs at Microsoft than at Intel, but you would not get this impression based on Wall Street media
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 19, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 19, 2025
Gemini Links 19/07/2025: Git For Authors and Filtered Antenna
Links for the day
UEFI 'Secure' Boot Abuses by Microsoft to be Brought Up in the UK High Court in 3 Months
we'll seek compensation
Next Year It'll Be Half a Decade Since the Fall of Freenode (and IRC is Still Doing OK)
Our IRC network is still accessible using the exact same software that ran in Windows 3.x
Lupa Will Soon Know of 3,100+ Active Gemini Capsules
And some people in the "Small Web" try to tell us that Gemini is dying?
The Slopfarms Are Taking Real News Articles and Replacing Them With Lies Generated by Machines
Bluntly speaking, Fagioli is nothing short of an online scammer
Links 19/07/2025: Techtarget to Cull 10% of Staff, New Threats to Free Press in the US (Home of Dangerous and Violent Stranglers From Microsoft)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/07/2025: "Climate Justice” and Forking Programs
Links for the day
What Wayland and Microsoft/IBM systemd Have in Common
focus on what IBM (Red Hat) is pushing while running over critics.
Linux Already Has About 60% of the "Market"
"When mentioning the client side," opines an associate, "it is essential to recite the list of other markets where Microsoft is negligible or a no-show. It is repetitive to do so, but it needs saying -- often."
Finland (and NATO) Must Move to GNU/Linux and Dump Microsoft Even Faster
"Microsoft is not a technology problem, it is a staffing problem."
The Microsofters We Sued Helped Microsoft Make GNU/Linux 'Expire' This Year
"Linux and Secure Boot certificate expiration"
linuxconfig.org Joins linuxtechlab.com and Others, Becomes a Slopfarm With Fake Linux 'Articles' (LLM Slop)
They contain "linux" in their domain names, but they are just slopfarms
Links 19/07/2025: Microsoft Cuts in China and Wall Street Journal Sued for Reporting on Jeffrey Epstein
Links for the day
Debian Can Dump Blind Users Because I am Not Blind
the sort of mentality we're up against
Fascistic Policies Got 'Normalised' in 'Public Office'. Let's Not Let the Same Happen in 'Tech'.
Political discourse typically guides what's "normal" and what "good citizens" should believe/feel
The European Patent Office Cannot Attract Proficient Patent Examiners Who Master Their Domain
They are enablers and facilitators of corruption
Yes, Your Mastodon Instance Will Also Shut Down
Few people run a one-person instance in the Fediverse
The Demise of GAFAM Necessitates Greater and Broader Awareness
Morale at Microsoft is really bad
Free Software Foundation Reaches 75% of Funding Goal
Not bad for this "Fosschild"
Slopwatch: 7 New Examples of Fake 'Linux' Slop Pieces (Plagiarism With Misinformation)
Serial Sloppers need to be shunned
Links 19/07/2025: Kapo-berg Settles, Software Patents Challenged
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 18, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 18, 2025
Links 18/07/2025: Peace With PKK and Connie Francis Dies
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/07/2025: Alhena 5.1.8 and Bornhack 2025
Links for the day
How to Top Up a "Limited Liability" With Even More Limitations (Dodging Accountability in the UK)
Some people call it a "shell game". Sometimes it's done for tax evasion purposes.
Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF) Inches Towards 75% of Fund-Raising Target
Will the cutoff date be extended again?
Gemini Space (or Geminispace) Grows, But Usage of Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Drops Further
Ideally, all Gemini capsules should use self-signed certificates
Links 18/07/2025: More Microsoft Layoffs in Activision, The New Stack (Sponsored by Microsoft) Complains About Openwashing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/07/2025: OCC25 Gnus for Reading Usenet and RSS Feeds, Small Web Updates
Links for the day
[Meme] 9AM Meeting at Brett Wilson LLP
Brett Wilson LLP in space
Listing as Staff People Who Left the Company More Than Six Years Earlier
There are apparently no laws against that
Brian Fagioli Shovels Up LLM Slop (Plagiarism) Onto Slashdot, Then Uses Slashdot for Affirmation or as Badge of Honour
Notice how some of his latest slop is presented ("as featured on Slashdot")
Social Control Media Productivity
Snapping photos of the bone
The Law Firm SLAPPing Us For the Microsofters Lost 72% of Its Tangible Assets in the Past Year, According to Its Own Reports
That might help explain why they're willing to tolerate serial stranglers from Microsoft as clients
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity.com Slopfarm and Slopfarms Propped Up by Google News
"As LLM slop is foisted onto the WWW in place of knowledge and real content, it now gets ingested and processed by other LLMs, creating a sort of ouroboros of crap."
Links 18/07/2025: Weather Events and Health Hazards
Links for the day
Microsoft's All-Time Low in Finland
Microsoft is in a freefall
Security: Shane Wegner & Debian statement of incompetence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 17, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 17, 2025