Bonum Certa Men Certa

New EPO Leak Shows That the Rumours and Jokes Are Partly True and We Know Who 'Runs the Show'

Those remnants of Battistelli

EPO change



Summary: Europe's second-largest institution is so profoundly dysfunctional, a reprehensible kakistocracy of tribalism, money-grabbing career-climbing autocrats and possibly major fraud; today's leak looks at what motivated and enabled the formation and latest incarnation of "Team Campinos"

THE European Patent Office (EPO) is work in progress. An experimental neoliberal laboratory of outsourcing, privatisation, union-busting and of course... immunity. "Get back to the factory, you working class pleb," said the master to the 'underclass'. Certainly feels like the Renaissance... of feudalism.



Welcome to the future of work (and workplaces).

New organisational structure for the holidays? You bet.

As we noted back in June, the EPO very quickly transformed into something akin to a political party (leader brings family, even literally in the age of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson!)

Team Campinos



That's "Team Campinos" until October 2019.

Notice there are lots of former colleagues of António Campinos. Here's one way to put it (Team Campinos nepotism):

Team Campinos nepotism



And here's Team Campinos from November 2019 onwards:

Team Campinos November 2019



Notice the changes, in particular w.r.t. past associates of Campinos.

Whose decision was it to enable this? Let's take a look. Spring 2018 (click to enlarge):

EPO Working Group spring 2018



It certainly looks like some kind of organisatinal coup, using procedures -- likely in violation of the EPC and its spirit -- to gradually oust dissent, as leaks published earlier this year very well showed. Many people are already working at limited time/capacity; they can be ousted without even a firing (or firing a single shot).

Here's how it was presented to the staff in the EPO intranet (wishy-washy hogwash):

EPO reorg under Campinos 1



EPO reorg under Campinos 2



EPO reorg under Campinos 3



EPO reorg under Campinos 4



"As usual, don't expect the media (what's left of it, including blogs of the patent microcosm) to report on any of this."We've been hearing all sorts of things over the past year and a half. A common Office joke goes, Bergot and her husband run the Office. To some insiders it certainly feels or seems like the employer is nowadays run by the supremely under-qualified (wife of Battistelli's old colleague) Mrs. Bergot rather than Campinos. We're not saying it's true (or false), we're just relaying what the grapevine insinuates. This is insane if true. Bergot's past makes this almost unbelievable. we have loads of leaks and information about her, but maybe we'll save those for some other time (those are far from flattering). As usual, don't expect the media (what's left of it, including blogs of the patent microcosm) to report on any of this. There's some kind of deliberate 'media blackout' and motivations for it were explained here before. I saw newsrooms spiking EPO stories and even removing them after they had been published (due to machinations behind the scenes). Other situations such as these often involve sexual abuses of very high-profile people and sometimes pedophilia (implicating people in positions of power), as reported in the media in recent years (after years of suppressions). Europe needs to hold its institutions accountable and impose transparency on them; instead it gives them immunity and thus impunity freewill.

Recent Techrights' Posts

EPO's Local Staff Committee Munich Organises General Assembly Next Week, the Goal is to Oust the Corrupt President and Derail His Unlawful Agenda
They're aiming to show Campinos the door
 
What a Price-Fixing Cartel Can Look Like
If your prices increase five-fold or ten-fold and so do your revenues/income, what does that tell us?
SLAPP Censorship - Part 178 Out of 200: Explaining to Your American Clients That Spending 130,000+ United States Dollars on a Single Hearing in Another Continent Means the UK's National Archives Will Retain in Perpetuity What Your Spouse or Girlfriend Said
Balabhadra (Alex) Graveley should ask Garrett how much money he has lost so far
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 10, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, September 10, 2026
Keeping Linux Reliable
If Linux becomes a lot more reliable in the future, we'll know why and who is responsible for it
Latest IBM Gossip is, Over 25,000 People to be PIPed (by Year's End)
That figure, 10%, is different from 15% (what we saw a lot). 10% is over 25,000 staff.
Solidarity at EPO
"Many colleagues have made personal and professional sacrifices by participating in the ongoing strike and work-to-rule action"
Gemini Links 11/09/2026: Culture Stuck, Robot Symphony, and Back to Geminispace
Links for the day
Links 10/09/2026: Facebook Unsafe for Kids, Fake Songs (Against Right of Publicity, CG Forgeries Basically) a Growing Problem
Links for the day
Rust is Financially and Technically Controlled by Microsoft. Rust Foundation is a Front for Microsoft's Proprietary Software.
Rust is not and has never been about security
Gemini Links 10/09/2026: "I Don’t Want to Interact With Stochastic Parrots" and "ROOPHLOCH 2026!"
Links for the day
What the British School Closure (BSN Senior School Leidschenveen) Means to EPO Staff
The only European thing about the EPO is the staff
Standing in Solidarity With Matt Mullenweg
I don't trust the people and companies that want Mullenweg out. Neither should you.
Links 10/09/2026: "Smear Campaign Says Anti-Flock Movement Is Chinese Propaganda" and "Flock Employee Calls Cops on Reporter Filming Them"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 09, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 09, 2026
IBM's Senior VP of Infrastructure is Out, Silent Layoffs Still Going On
Some people imagine the CEO will also "retire" very soon (and "ahead of time")
Gemini Links 09/09/2026: Mechanical Cameras, "Super App", and Prusa Issues
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 177 Out of 200: Manosphere Without Financial Transparency
It has moreover replaced a female worker with a male
Deadline Tomorrow (10th of September) to Appeal the EPO's Fleecing of Staff (Union to Make Legal Challenges)
Join them. Fight the good fight.
linuxstans.com Died, Then Came Back as Slop (LLM Junk)
Don't make the mistake or the assumption that merely 'dabbling in' or 'experimenting with' LLMs can be forgivable as it is a trust destroyer
Links 09/09/2026: GAFAM Fatalities in Miami International Airport, "Britain’s Health Crisis Is Becoming a Political Crisis"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/09/2026: "Adjective Is Subjective" and Walled Gardens
Links for the day
Plagiarism is Hardly a New Problem, It Predates Mainstream Media Getting Paid to Whitewash It as "Training" or "Hey Hi", Then Conflate Plagiarism With "Intelligence" or Deferred "Value"
"Quantum" isn't new either; it's a 'circle-jerk' for companies without direction, only hype
Links 09/09/2026: Airport 'Down' (Glasgow and Edinburgh), 'Open' 'AI' Losses Rise to Pace of 50 Billion Dollars in Losses Per Year
Links for the day
Unsafe at Any Speed, "Modern" Appliances
Appliances have gotten worse
SLAPP Censorship - Part 176 Out of 200: The Sex-Obsessed Non-Experts
We heard some sexual stories
European Patent Office (EPO): No Transparency and No Paper Trail
The incompetence is that of the management, i.e. sheer incompetence of people who never examined a patent in their entire lifetime
Gemini Links 09/09/2026: Going Out, Smartphone Addiction, Mapping the Geminispace
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 08, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 08, 2026