EARLIER THIS week the European Patent Organisation (EPO) made the decision to choose a particular new Chairman of the Administrative Council, seeing that in a matter of weeks António Campinos turns his 'boss' into his assistant. It's just as ludicrous as that sounds and it says a lot about the lack of oversight at the EPO.

"Suffice to say, the European Patent Office won't be bossed by him but will boss him, as usual, as it's a rogue institution where Campinos, according to insiders, seeks to have even greater powers than Battistelli."They wrote in Twitter that "Josef Kratochví [is] elected Chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation," pointing to a page from the prior day (warning: epo.org link).

Suffice to say, the European Patent Office won't be bossed by him but will boss him, as usual, as it's a rogue institution where Campinos, according to insiders, seeks to have even greater powers than Battistelli. Look no further than the fact that his former 'boss' will be bossed by him very shortly; but there are other aspects to this power grab, other than this uttertly gross reversal of roles.

"Next month we'll have a lot to say about the Croat who made corruption at the EPO not only banal; it encouraged the Office to aggressively block and punish anything and anyone who dared bring up the subject."To quote the EPO: "The Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation today elected Josef Kratochvíl (CZ) as its Chairman. Mr Kratochvíl succeeds Christoph Ernst (DE) who, in October, was appointed Vice-President for Directorate General Legal and International Affairs of the European Patent Office. Mr. Kratochvíl is currently Deputy Chairman of the Council and is also the President of the Industrial Property Office of the Czech Republic."

Separately, the EPO wrote about (warning: epo.org link) and later cited an item about a week-long office closure. One week's closure sounds like loss of 'productivity', no? Isn't it the only major holiday Battistelli did not shorten or altogether cancel? "Please note that our offices will be closed over the holiday period from 24 December 2018 to 1 January 2019 inclusive," the EPO said.

We'll be migrating our site to a new server around that time. Suffice to say, we'll still be blocked by the EPO, under Kratochví and Campinos. Censorship policies at the Office have not changed; virtually nothing has changed other than PR. Next month we'll have a lot to say about the Croat who made corruption at the EPO not only banal; it encouraged the Office to aggressively block and punish anything and anyone who dared bring up the subject. ⬆