Bonum Certa Men Certa

EUIPO and EPO Abuses Growingly Inseparable

Bleeding reputation

ARCHAMBEAU RIGA 2015



Summary: 'Musical chairs' at CEIPI and the EPO/EUIPO (Battistelli, Archambeau, Campinos) as well as joint reports never fail to reveal the extent to which EPO abuses are spreading

OUR 5-year research into abuses at the European Patent Office (EPO) often led us not astray but into abuses at other institutions. EUIPO, for instance, does not have a shortage of scandals; for instance, recall António Campinos/Battistelli 'musical chairs' at CEIPI, immunity scandals, nepotism/entryism, and outsourcing.



Now that Campinos is the President at the EPO he's promoting software patents in Europe and doing just about nothing to improve anything; later this month he might even give 30 million euros to a company with roots in the Third Reich.

"What has Campinos brought to the EPO? Nothing."In Twitter, IAM has just resorted to facts-free name-calling against me, seeing that we covered the back room story about how Christian Archambeau's appointment was 'fixed'. He's still head of the EUIPO and now he has his "first press briefing," on which World Trademark Review/IAM was very eager to 'report' (and yes, it's an incredible puff piece or marketing). The summary says: "Christian Archambeau sat down with journalists earlier today in what was his first press briefing since he became executive director of the EUIPO. In a wide-ranging discussion, he revealed various plans that the office has in the works."

IAM aren't "journalists"; they're paid by the very same institutions they cover, e.g. EPO. Sadly, EUIPO is quickly becoming the same thing EPO was about 5 years ago, owing to nepotism and corruption (the head of the EUIPO came from EPO and head of EPO came from EUIPO; sometimes known as "cross-pollination").

"New study looks at relationship between SMEs, growth and use of Intellectual Property Rights," says the summary of this EPO "news" (warning: epo.org link), promoted in Twitter under the title "Joint EPO-EUIPO study finds strong link between growth of SMEs and their use of IP" [sic] (mixing two totally different things, patents and trademarks).

"Campinos brought Battistelli back to the EPO. Just less than a year after he had left."Can one even tell the difference between those two anymore? Except one being EU-tied and the other predating the EU?

What has Campinos brought to the EPO? Nothing. A delusion or a false hope of change.

Have a look at Barney Dixon's article, which was cited by SUEPO this week. The author rightly notes that it took Campinos 'only' a year to merely speak about MoU with SUEPO chiefs (it took him 5 months to merely face them) and staff representatives remain punished after union-busting activities. From the article:

The Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) met with the office’s president, António Campinos, last Thursday (16 May) to discuss a framework for a memorandum of understanding between the office and SUEPO.

While details from the meeting have not yet emerged, in an open letter ahead of the meeting, SUEPO said it was not prepared to prioritise a discussion on a memorandum of understanding over the issue of the unlawful sanctions against European Patent Office (EPO) staff.

It said that these negotiations could only go hand in hand with progress achieved in the other topics, including the settlement of sanctions.

SUEPO claims that, despite many statements from Campinos outlining his intention to restore social dialogue at the office, it was only in December, five months after he took office, that he first met with SUEPO Central.

The union also claims that Campinos failed to organise a follow-up meeting in January 2019.

SUEPO is the largest union at the EPO, representing more than half of staff office-wide.

[...]

It was carried out in order to establish a baseline to measure progress as the new EPO strategy is rolled out from summer 2019 onwards; give EPO staff a chance to have their say at an important time for the office and compare results with relevant external benchmarks.

The EPO’s Central Staff Committee said the results are “neither a surprise nor a statistical anomaly … Instead, they are a dangerous continuation of a long-standing trend, that of a sinking ship.”


So the EPO is still going down the drain, based on the employees of the EPO. Notice this new comment responding to this: “It also shows the responsibility of the Administrative Council. They simply cannot trust anything even the new President, Campinos, puts on the table.”

The response: "Does that mean that they will be employing food-tasters at the upcoming Inventor of the Year Sommerfest in Vienna?"

"They're hijacked by few corrupt individuals who assign (gift) top posts to friends and colleagues, not people best qualified for the job; they become exceedingly rich at the expense of Europe and if the institutions collapse in the process, so be it (the way they see it)."Remember that they've added Battistelli as a jurist. On technical matters (Battistelli has no background in science). Campinos brought Battistelli back to the EPO. Just less than a year after he had left.

Here's another new comment: "The Office issued a new financial study. Märpel should try to get it. The study concludes that the EPO equity will be negative, but omits all planned fee increases while keeping regular increases in costs. Hence, it seems that Campinos, just like Battistelli, will not hesitate to publish bogus studies to serve his plans."

These institutions are victims of corruption at the higher/highest level. They're hijacked by few corrupt individuals who assign (gift) top posts to friends and colleagues, not people best qualified for the job; they become exceedingly rich at the expense of Europe and if the institutions collapse in the process, so be it (the way they see it).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Techrights Headlines as Semaphore
"If you are hearing this, thank you"
 
Gemini Links 01/04/2025: XKCDpunk and worldclock.py
Links for the day
50 Years of Sabotage and a Gut Punch to Computer Science (and Science in General)
Will we get back to science-based computing rather than cult-like following?
3 Months in 2025, 4 Waves of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft, Now Offices Shut Down Permanently
"A recent visit by the South China Morning Post confirmed that the office was dark, unoccupied, and had its logo removed."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 31, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, March 31, 2025
Links 31/03/2025: China Tensions, Bombs Falling in Myanmar After Earthquake
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/03/2025: Falling Out of Love With Tech, Sunsetting openSNP
Links for the day
R.T.O. at IBM in Texas and Atlanta (State of Georgia) Expected as "Soft Layoffs" Catalyst This Coming Year
It also sounds like more IBM layoffs are in the making
Law Firms Can Also Lose Their Licence for Clearly Misusing It
The bottom line is, never made the false assumption that because you can pile up SLAPPs in a docket you will not suffer from bad reputation or even get disbarred
Link between institutional abuse, Swiss jurists, Debianism and FSFE
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
LLM Slop Piggybacking News About GNU/Linux and Distorting It
new examples
Links 31/03/2025: Press and Democracy Under Further Attacks in the US, Attitudes Towards Slop Sour
Links for the day
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: The OSI Does Not Respect Anybody's Privacy
The surveillance mafia that bans dissent or key people (even co-founders) with dissenting views
Gemini Links 31/03/2025: More X-Filesposting and Dreaming in Emacs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 30, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, March 30, 2025
Links 30/03/2025: Security Breaches, Crackdowns on Dissent/Rival Politicians
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/03/2025: London Soundtrack Festival, Superbloom, gmiCAPTCHA
Links for the day
Phasing Out Vista 10 in Nations Where ~90% of Windows Users Still Rely on It
Recipe for another Microsoft disaster
The Cost of Pursuing the Much-Needed Reform/Shield Against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs)
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.”
The LLM Bubble is About to Implode, Gimmicks and Financial Shell Games Cannot Prevent That, Only Delay It
To inflate the bubble MElon is now doing the classic trick of buying from oneself for a fictional value
Links 30/03/2025: Contagious Ideas, Signal Leak, and Squashing Lousy Patents
Links for the day
Links 30/03/2025: "Quantum Randomness" and "F-1 Visa Revoked" in US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/03/2025: US as a Threat, Returning to the WWW
Links for the day
Links 30/03/2025: Judge Blocks Dismantling Of VOA, Turkey Arrested Many Journalists
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 29, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, March 29, 2025