Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Sky is the Limit for EPO Management as Patent Quality is Lowered to Gutter Level

Working the 'peasants' to death during the pandemic

EPO and masks



Summary: EPO management quit caring about staff and about patent quality; it's nowadays operating like nothing but a bank, occasionally to be challenged by examiners who feel like they've been reduced to mindless clerks

The Central Staff Committee (CSC, staff representatives) of the EPO has been corresponding with Mr. Microsoft lately, highlighting to him the fact that there's this thing called pandemic going on and Office management cannot simply ignore that.



These representatives explained to colleagues that "[o]n 29 January 2021, the Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) sent an open letter to Mr Rowan (VP1) on the promised bottom-up planning in DG1 which never really materialized. The number of colleagues faced with unreachable objectives has this year reached unprecedented levels, especially amongst those in the ICT cluster. Timeliness objectives are turning into a covert means to increase productivity targets. Mr Rowan (VP1) sent his reply on 15 March 2021."

Mr. too-busy-to-respond was able to issue several Microsoft ads (lies) in that same period of time. While ignoring a query for 1.5 months. Here is what he wrote (in Microsoft Office) a few days after we started exposing the Microsoft scandal:

European Patent Office | 2280 HV RIJSWIJK | NETHERLANDS

Mr ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆ ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆ ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆ Chairman Local Staff Committee Munich Room ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆ PschorrHöfe Munich

European Patent Office Postbus 5818 2280 HV Rijswijk Netherlands

Dir. 1 Patent Granting Process

Steve Rowan Vice President

Tel +31 (0)70 340 - 2000 srowan@epo.org

Date: 15.03.2021

Dear Mr ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆,

Thank you for your letter of the 29 January concerning the target setting in DG1 for the year 2021.

In your letter you make the assertion that the bottom-up planning process in DG1, ‘never really materialized. This year is no exception’. In 2019 the planning process for 2020 involved a bottom-up exercise alongside the usual budgetary planning and the medium-term business planning (MTBP) processes. In that activity, the budget and MTBP for 2020 suggested a production target of 419k products whereas the bottom-up exercise suggested a target of 407k products. At an Executive Operating Committee meeting, the President set the DG1 target for 2020 at 407k – fully in line with the bottom-up plan.

When the pandemic broke out, all colleagues who were experiencing difficulties were encouraged to discuss their targets with their line managers. In addition, a full review of targets was undertaken at mid-year and as a result some 7000 products were taken off individual targets.

Thanks to the efforts and commitment of colleagues from across the Office, the production of 402k products was realised in 2020. This was a significant achievement and was accompanied by outstanding quality in search and classification and improving quality in grant. Excellence levels were achieved in tackling the classification backlog, a significant investment was made in SP2023 projects and there were improvements in timeliness in search and examination. Alongside this, a digital transformation in tools and processes was implemented.

Turning to the process for 2021, the bottom-up planning, after adjustments for some errors resulting from changes to team structures, came out at 390k products while the initial budget plan and MTBP suggested a production of 412k. This was later revised to 395k to reflect the global economic slow-down.

In setting the production target for DG1 for 2021, the bottom-up planning and budget were considered alongside other factors including:

● the ongoing pandemic and its impact on colleagues; ● continuing the improvement in our examination timeliness; ● processing new oppositions in parallel with tackling the backlog of oppositions; ● mastering the incoming workload and achieving a soft landing of our stocks; ● maintaining our financial autonomy and improving our overall efficiency.

A production target of 390k would not have achieved these objectives. As such, a target of 395k was set and cascaded in consultation with Directors, team managers and examiners. Overall, the production and productivity targets for 2021 are set at 96% of the achievement for 2019. The bottom-up exercise played an important role in informing the discussion and the final decision on target setting for 2021. The exceptional closure of the Office at the start of this year should have been taken into account for each examiner and I will ask the relevant team to look into this.

As with last year we will carry out a mid-year review in June/July and this will be an opportunity for colleagues to discuss individual circumstances with their line manager. The President has also made clear that if, in the meantime, there are individuals who are experiencing particular difficulties, then they should speak to their line manager. We remain in a pandemic situation and with different pressures on each of us. The emphasis remains on health and well being and on best and collaborative efforts.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Rowan



"The emphasis remains on health," he says, but EPO managers aren't even wearing a mask. How basic...

EPO hypocrites



So targets go up while number of examiners is decreasing, as per the EPO's own reports.

Going back to the word of the EPO's staff representatives: "In this open letter to Mr Rowan (VP1), the Central Staff Committee (CSC) now addresses the fact that 32% of all examiners in 2021 have been given a higher production objective than in 2019 and that a +2.2% increase in productivity is planned in 2021, compared to 2020.

"We remain in a pandemic situation with pressure on each of us. Given this and the feedback we are getting from staff, we doubt that such an increase in productivity from one pandemic year to the next can be the result of genuine bottom-up planning. It is also difficult to reconcile with Mr Rowan’s claim for an emphasis on health and well-being and on best and collaborative efforts."

"Therefore, we believe that a discussion meeting with Mr Rowan (VP1) is more than necessary to clarify the situation."

Somebody 'leaked' to us the open letter, which we've decided to reproduce below:

European Patent Office 80298 Munich Germany

Zentraler Personalausschuss Central Staff Committee Le Comité Central du Personnel

Tel. +49 (0)89 2399 - 4355 Fax +49 (0)89 2399 - 8470 mnstcom@epo.org

Reference: sc21039cl – 0.3.1/1.3.3 Date: 19.03.2021

European Patent Office | 80298 MUNICH | GERMANY

Mr Stephen Rowan Vice-President DG1

Room 211 Isar

OPEN LETTER

Target setting in DG1 for the year 2021 Demand for urgent meeting

Dear Mr Rowan,

We acknowledge receipt of your reply letter dated 15 March in response to our demand for an urgent meeting of 29 January 2021. We take note that your letter comes with no meeting invitation.

Since the publication of our open letter, all places of employment and further colleagues shared feedback and their support to the view that no genuine bottom-up planning ever materialized.

In your reply letter, you stress that the “[o]verall production and productivity objectives for 2021 are set at 96% of the achievement of 2019 and your weekly note of 17 February 2021 further details that “[a]t DG1 level, over 65% received lower production objectives in 2021 compared to what they achieved in 2019 [...] overall 32% of all examiners received a higher production objective”.

First, our letter aimed at comparing the objectives for the pandemic years 2021 and 2020, and not with the year 2019. However, the fact that 32% of all examiners in 2021 received a higher production objective than 2019 is already a matter of concern because 2021 is again a pandemic year whereas 2019 was not. In this respect, we maintain our request for

detailed data which could shed light on the alarming situation of colleagues in ICT.

Second, your letter mentions that, in 2020, 402k products were realised and the target for 2021 will be lower at 395k. However, the Medium-Term-Business-Plan (MTBP) and the involvement in SP2023 projects you are referring to actually have the following consequences: the non-replacement of departures and a freeze in recruitment reducing the headcount in DG1, as well as lower capacity for core tasks. The effects are actually shown in the DG1 Management Dashboard according to which a +2.2% increase in productivity (1,80 days per product in 2021 vs. 1,84 days per product in 2020) is planned.

We remain in a pandemic situation with pressure on each of us. Bearing this in mind and the feedback we get from staff, we doubt that such an increase in productivity from one pandemic year to the other can be the result of a genuine bottom-up planning. It is also difficult to reconcile with your claim for an emphasis on health and well-being and on best and collaborative efforts.

For the above reasons, we believe that a discussion meeting is more than necessary to clarify the situation.

Yours sincerely, Alain Dumont

Chairman of the Central Staff Committee


EPO management without scientific background (just political and personal connections) seems incapable of grasping what patents are, how patent law works, and what its original purpose was. They think and behave like a bank, instead. Until the Council decides to flush down this entire cabal -- however unlikely that is to actually happen -- the EPO will never be a patent office again. It's just printing and printing, until people are fed up and give up. To quote a few comments published this morning in IP Kat (comments, not posts): "It seems to be that the EBA has already acted in its current dubious composition. It has decided to summons by videoconference with a very tight deadline." (Source)

There is also: "In view of this amazing situation any composition according to the distribution scheme for the EBA is not worth the paper it is written on!" (Source)

And lastly, for now (there's a lot more): "I find the amazing the nerve put to light by the upper management. When it came to deciding that OP in the form of ViCo are compulsory, users were not asked for their opinion." (Source)

That's what stakeholders are thinking, but the media mostly ignores them.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Approaching 10,000 Articles/Pages Since Going Static
Trying to silence or derail the site was always a dumb strategy
Microsoft is Shedding Off Loads of Staff and That Can be Dangerous Too
Working for Microsoft is a choice; nobody forces you to do it
Richard Stallman and the Unix Philosophy
When asked about systemd people must remember that RMS speaks as an active Board member of the FSF and also the founder of the FSF
Get Rid of Back Doors, Don't Obsess Over Bounties and Other Corporate PR Stunts (or Needless Reboot Rituals)
Security as a term has mostly lost its meaning due to repeated misuse for many years
Serial Sloppers Are Killing the Web (They Probably Don't Care, Either)
Slop is a disease on the Web
IBM's Debt Ballooned by 8.5 Billion Dollars in Just 3 Months!
Hallmark of a company in a state of disarray, trying to spend its way out of trouble
Big Trouble in GNOME
even GNOME people admit the CoC went wrong
 
Links 25/04/2025: Slop Fatigue and Patent Judges Flocking to Fake, Unconstitutional and Illegal Kangaroo Court (UPC, Captured 'Justice')
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Night Manager and Devuan in Hosting
Links for the day
Windows Falls to New Lows in Nicaragua, Now Below a Quarter (It Used to be Almost 100%)
Another all-time low for Windows
The Cost (to Linux) of LLM Slop
Slop 'artists' like Fagioli are far from harmless
Links 25/04/2025: Ubisoft Spyware, Hegseth Fails at Tech on Every Level
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Food Forest Update and Facebook Destroying the Net
Links for the day
Streaming Apps Are “Investor Fraud” That Kills the Planet
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Things Get Increasingly Nasty at Microsoft Ahead of the Fake Results and May's Mass Layoffs Wave
They try to get people to 'resign' so that they won't count as layoffs and the company's 'wellbeing' will seem better
Slopping the Trough: Disney Plus Loses Billions and the Decline of Physical Media in America
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 24, 2025
Links 24/04/2025: GAFAM Problems and No Peace (or Ceasefire) in Sight
Links for the day
Slopfarms on the Web Almost Always Generate Anti-Linux FUD When They Produce "Linux" Output
Welcome to the dying Web
Richard Stallman's Oxford Talk Has Just Ended, Here Are Some Photos
he might hop over to another European country
Gemini Links 24/04/2025: Birthday and Good Work of Academia in Esotericism
Links for the day
Links 24/04/2025: EU fines Apple and Facebook, Another Microsoft GitHub Security Blunder
Links for the day
New Article Explains How the GPL Came About and WordPress Having Copyleft Obligations
Having been involved in the WordPress development community since almost the beginning, I know why it chose the GPL and how it restricts abuse by Automattic
IBM Gained Almost 6 Billion Dollars in "Goodwill" Value in Just 3 Months, According to IBM
Congrats to the management!
In Belarus, Yandex is Now Measured as 50 Times More 'Popular' (by Usage) Than Microsoft
Yandex continues to gain, whereas Bing cannot even register at 1%. Last month it was registered or measured at a measly 0.65%.
IBM Cannot Lie to Shareholders Anymore
"I would not be surprised if we see a layoff every quarter this year."
Dr Richard Stallman (RMS) Gives Talk in Oxford University in 4 Hours
If you live nearby, go there (it's free as in gratis)
Using a Law Firm's Licence to Exercise Politics Through Frivolous SLAPPs and Nastygrams (to Silence People, Remove Pages, Demand Fake or Forced 'Apologies')
Things must be getting really bad when lawyers act for raving antisemites
We're Working to Make Full-Site Search Available
This site has over 1,000 'wiki' pages, many thousands of documents, several thousands of videos, and about 50,000 blog posts or articles. We need to make them easier to find/navigate.
Links 24/04/2025: IBM Loses Many Contracts, Intel to Lay Off Over 20% (Not Counting Those Who Leave 'Voluntarily')
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Can Explain to Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society Why LLM Slop is Not Artificial Intelligence and Why It Hurts Society
another 'crop' of LLM slop that damages GNU/Linux and facts
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Promoting Microsoft and Proprietary Software Using Microsoft Operatives
Because nothing says "Open Source" like GPL violations facilitated by Microsoft
Another Site Bites the Dust: "Open Source For You" Becoming a Slopfarm (LLM Slop)
What a shame. Another dead site.
Links 23/04/2025: Crackdowns on Dissent, Palin Loses Libel Retrial Against New York Times
Links for the day
Links 23/04/2025: Hard Times and Digital Amnesia
Links for the day
The GNU/Linux Site Formerly Known as "linoxide.com" is Back... as an LLM Slopfarm!
Better for linoxide.com to go offline than to do this
Richard Stallman to Speak in Oxford University Exactly a Day From Now
outsourced to GAFAM
Links 23/04/2025: "Hiding Corruption" and "The Cost of Defunding Harvard"
Links for the day
Microsoft 'Studies' Again? Leon Musolff is Writing Papers With Microsoft.
Even if one can see/find a link to "the study" (in the Bezos-controlled publication), most people won't look any further and just take everything at face value.
Towards GNU World Domination
The FSF led by Geoffrey S. Knauth with his friend Richard Stallman in the FSF's Board [...] Let's encourage people to adopt GNU/Linux. There has never been a better time.
statCounter Helps Visualise Just How Deep in Trouble Microsoft is (Especially in Africa)
Microsoft sabotaged efforts to connect Africans and equip them with GNU/Linux laptops
The Register is Using Linux-Hostile Clickbait in Articles of Linux Proponents
Don't be a "whore" to advertisers, team El Reg
Microsoft Windows in Cyprus Lacking a Future
Most people access the Web there from mobile
Matrix Has a Severe Problem With Illegal Images
If Matrix cannot get the CP problem under control, many projects and people will dump Matrix
Never Try to Justify Strangulation of Women (Not in the US and Not in the UK)
Joint post by Mrs. Rianne Schestowitz and Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Links 23/04/2025: Tesla Profits Plunge 71%, Intel Ready to Lay Off 20% of Staff, Microsoft and IBM Layoffs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Most Profound Issue is That People Moved to 'Mobile' and "App Stores" (Microsoft's Presence There is Negligible)
Expect a wild ride for Microsoft this year
Google News is Amplifying FUD and Lies About Linux (and OpenSSH/SSH) by Promoting Slopfarms With Machine-Generated FUD and Slop Images
Google should know better
Gemini Links 23/04/2025: Librarians, Anubis, and Refactoring a Gemini Capsule
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 22, 2025