Three EPO "news" items in less than two days? Sometimes they go on for over a month without even one.

Notice how nobody in the media bothered covering this question among others, leading to Commission cover-up in the dark (without any backlash whatsoever)

Summary: Bribed media keeps posting puff pieces, blackmailed media says nothing ("media blackout", utter silence), and the EPO's Web site is a non-stop propaganda machine; is this the best we have to offer in terms of journalism in 2020?

THE EPO blocks this site. Both Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos did this. Facts are "malicious"... PR is "gold".

As we noted here last week, these censorious affairs are counterproductive because if staff wants to know something, staff will find a way. They're not "compinos" (literally herders of cattle), they're mostly examiners. Research is the type of thing they do for a living.

"The staff should also be very angry at the media, seeing what happened to it over the past half a decade (I used to speak to some of those who covered the scandals; I know why they stopped); not only did the media fail to cover EPO abuses (journalists suppressed) as at times it also helped Battistelli defame an innocent judge, both in the Netherlands and in Germany."Earlier today SUEPO sort of 'broke the silence' as far as the general public is concerned because SUEPO's site now publicly mentions next week's strike, citing Kluwer Patent Blog. It later added this new node that says: "L'Union Syndicale Fédérale (USF), the largest trade union federation in the European international civil service, today published the following article on the announced strike on 15 December 2020 at the European Patent Office..."

"Staff of EPO goes on strike on 15th December" (English version) can be found here [PDF]; it's a one-pager:



The full letter is clearly written, as imaged above (simple and clear language not only EPO insiders can grasp), with the following English text:

Staff of EPO goes on strike on 15th December

After two and a half years of presidency of Mr. Campinos, the situation is again tense at the European Patent Office.

Many of the issues inherited from the previous administration have not yet been solved, or only partially solved.

In particular staff at the EPO is still denied a fair career progression and a fair and transparent reporting system.

Respect for staff and staff representation, people-oriented management, decrease of work pressure and genuine social dialogue are still empty promises that have failed to materialize so far.

The cases of some of the SUEPO officials/Staff representatives abusively sanctioned by the Battistelli administration have not been settled and partial impediment of the activities of the staff representation and its capacity to contact all the staff by limiting the number of email addressees to 50, has not been officially lifted yet. The current unique strict regulations on the right to strike are a clear limitation of that same right and an unacceptable interference of the administration in union matters.

On top of all that the unilateral implementation of a new Salary Adjustment Procedure based on a flawed financial study will have a disastrous effects from next year on to the salaries and the pensions of the staff, due to its arbitrary capping mechanism. For the first time in EPO history, and most probably in the history of international organizations, Purchasing Power Parity between sites and parallelism with the evolution of salaries in the central governments of the member states will not be respected. This precedent is worrying not only for the staff of the EPO but also for all staff of international organisations. The new Salary Adjustment Procedure is an adjustment procedure only by name and should be more properly called a Salary Erosion Procedure.

The EPO top management is now pushing unpopular, divisive and far-reaching reforms, like a reform on education allowance, despite the pandemic while ignoring most input from the staff and the staff representation.

Staff at the EPO has been very patient so far. However in light of all of the above and the lack of substantial progress in most of the issues at stake staff has decided that “enough is enough” !

Roberto Righetti Member of the USF Federal Bureau Member of SUEPO TH

So where's the mainstream media?

Silent.

Missing.

Not interested?

Isn't it important news when Europe's second-largest institution goes on strike for the first time in years?

Corrupt EPO management already uses its mindless catchphrases and buzzwords to promote illegal patents such as software patents (probably trying hard to distract from their staff going on strike because EPO managers break many laws). This (warning: epo.org link) is the third one in just over 24 hours. Sometimes 24 whole days go by (even more) without a single one!

Speaking as a technical person, I can say very sincerely that it's just a buzzwords salad with little or no substance. When the EPO says "fourth industrial revolution (4IR) [...] Internet of Things, big data, 5G, and artificial intelligence (AI)" it means dogwhistle or 'code' for patents on code. Those are ILLEGAL and this is what a buzzwords salad looks like (written like it was prepared by a marketing department, not a technical professional):

A study published today by the European Patent Office (EPO) shows that innovation in fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies has accelerated significantly worldwide. Between 2010 and 2018, global patent filings for these technologies, which concern smart connected objects and span the Internet of Things, big data, 5G, and artificial intelligence (AI), grew at an average annual rate of almost 20% - nearly five times faster than the average of all technology fields.

The study, entitled Patents and the Fourth Industrial Revolution - the global technology trends enabling the data-driven economy, looks at all international patent families (IPFs) related to 4IR worldwide between 2000 and 2018. Each of these represents a high-value invention for which patent applications have been filed at two or more patent offices globally. The study finds that nearly 40 000 new IPFs were filed for these technologies in 2018 alone. This means they accounted for more than 10% of all patenting activity worldwide that year.

This is the kind of junk that later gets reprinted by media that the EPO bribes (in exchange for printing such junk in multiple languages). Hours ago a reader told us that the EPO-bribed Les Echos is at it again.

"New puff piece in Les Echos," the reader says, as s/he "discovered a new puff piece in the official fake news partner of the EPO. While the redhead drug addict oppresses the staff, he plays the hero in the press. The Germans would call his behaviour "Selbstbefriedigung"."

No wonder the staff is angry. The staff should also be very angry at the media, seeing what happened to it over the past half a decade (I used to speak to some of those who covered the scandals; I know why they stopped); not only did the media fail to cover EPO abuses (journalists suppressed) as at times it also helped Battistelli defame an innocent judge, both in the Netherlands and in Germany. ⬆