Bonum Certa Men Certa

Ten Years Since 'EPO 9/11'

Jo, Boris Johnson and Battistelli



Summary: The 'Battistelli years' started ten years ago; morale has since then collapsed, quality of patents is unrecognisable (courts reject a lot of European Patents) and layoffs are coming

TEN years ago the European Patent Office (EPO) crowned Benoît Battistelli in spite of warnings that the man was dangerous and incompetent. He lasted 8 years before leaving the job, due to growing pressure, putting his position at the hands of another crony of his, so the EPO never recovered and may never recover. As SUEPO noted earlier this summer, António Campinos has lower approval rates (among EPO staff) than Battistelli when one compares analogous points in time. There's no recovery foreseen, only layoffs. And judging things from here, the collapse of the UPC harms not only software patents granted by the EPO; it lessens the chance of any European Patent being successfully enforced in a court of law. Earlier this morning IP Kat wrote about "EP (UK) patent (EP2657585) related to a collapsible garden hose," noting that the English/British "Court of Appeal considered Emson's appeal from a High Court decision finding the Xhose patent obvious in view of a prior art patent document, McDonald (US 2003/0000530)." It further stated: "All of the judges commented that, to a casual observer, the Xhose would seem obviously inventive or expressed sympathy for the sole inventor when finding his "simple and brilliant invention" obvious in view of a niche patent document of which the inventor had not been aware (see Arnold LJ at para. 76)."



"There's no separation of powers."At the moment the EPO's 'Haar division' (BoA in exile) is still managed by another Battistelli appointee, so justice seems like a distant dream. As we noted several times earlier this month, Campinos and the Office still openly meddle in the affairs of these judges. So what sort of oversight is this? There's no separation of powers. Maybe Carl can kiss and make up after one of his judges/colleagues was attacked for writing about a corrupt 'bulldog' of Battistelli, whom he owes his job to?

You don't get rewarded with top BoA job for standing up for Judge Corcoran



The EPO as a noble institution took a dive about a decade ago. EPO insiders would rightly accuse Battistelli's predecessors of not being too good, either. But the general consensus is that Battistelli was by far the worst. The EPO may never ever recover from the Battistelli era.

Battistelli is still around, despite his retirement age, but he'll never live to fulfill his dream as fake chief 'judge' of the dead UPC.

INTA and Battistelli



Battistelli doesn't look too healthy in this photograph. To be fair, he's not so young either and all that wine corrodes both the body and the mind.

Lionel Baranes was right about Battistelli. Had more people listened to him, maybe EPO would still be world leader rather than European embarrassment.

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