Europe's second-largest institution has become an utter disgrace, allege its very own workers

Summary: The G1/21 hearing/s commence tomorrow; that's a good time to take stock of recent scandals, which demonstrate the 'demonic' type of institution that we deal with (and workers have gotten sick of)

SEVEN years ago we began covering EPO affairs in a more in-depth fashion, empowered by sources that trust us to cover the issues properly without fear of the "Mafia" that runs the Office (employees of the Office call their own management "Mafia", based on this management's behaviour).

At this moment we prepare some primers in order to better introduce people to the issues at hand; the target audience will be people who aren't too familiar with how patents and patent offices work. It takes a lot of effort explaining things without assumptions being made about what people already know.

People who are more familiar with the concepts (e.g. EPO insiders who do this for a living, sometimes law firms too) are likely more interested in 'office politics'. The media almost never touches that, partly because it lacks access; people don't trust any random blogger or 'journalist'.

"At this moment we prepare some primers in order to better introduce people to the issues at hand; the target audience will be people who aren't too familiar with how patents and patent offices work."For starters, we urge readers who belatedly join in or tune in to understand that G1/21 was likely decided on already (months ago). The hearings which start tomorrow morning will be an exercise in theatrics. The courts of the EPO are barely functional; they're tribunals controlled by Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos -- the very same people they're supposed to decided on!

Below are essential readings.

Kangaroo Courts Series:

• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 1: Rumours of a Kangaroo Court at EPOnia
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 2: Just Another Pro Forma Rubber-Stamping Exercise?
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 3: The Current Line-up
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 4: The President of the Boards of Appeal
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 5: Battistelli's “Swedish Chef”
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 6: The Habermasian Who Warned About “Legal Anarchy”
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 7: Calle's Strange Metamorphosis
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 8: The Radical Student “Brotherhood”
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 9: Squeezing Out the Lifeblood of Democracy?
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 10: A Faustian Pact?
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 11: The Rapporteur Who Once Was Vice-President
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 12: Internal Members: Ingo Beckedorf
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 13: Internal Members: Gunnar Eliasson and Andrea Ritzka
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 14: Nemo Iudex in Causa Sua?
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 15: The EBA Letter of 8 December 2014
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 16: The Mystery of the “Missing Signatures”
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 17: The External Members: Evangelos Chatzikos and Richard Arnold
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 18: Promoting the Illusion of Peace and Haar-mony
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 19: Ladies and Gentlemen, Place Your Bets…
• The EPO's War on Justice and Assault on the Law -- Part 20: Summing up

As was demonstrated in the past, European member states and their courts reject European software patents. So why does the EPO keep granting those? Well, consider the completely unhinged nature of the EPO, which totally and completely lacks oversight.

Government Complicity Series:

• The EPO Bundestagate -- Part 1: How the Bundestag Was (and Continues to be) Misled About EPO Affairs
• The EPO Bundestagate -- Part 2: Lack of Parliamentary Oversight, Many Questions and Few Answers…
• The EPO Bundestagate -- Part 3: A “Minor Interpellation” in the German Bundestag
• The EPO Bundestagate -- Part 4: Parroting the GDPR-Compliance Myth
• The EPO Bundestagate -- Part 5: The Federal Eagle's Disconcerting Metamorphosis
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag -- Part 6: Dr Petri Starts the Ball Rolling…
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag -- Part 7: Ms Voßhoff Alerts the Bundestag…
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag -- Part 8: The EPO's Tweedledum, Raimund Lutz
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag -- Part 9: A Veritable Virtuoso of Legal Sophistry
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag -- Part 10: A Faithful Lapdog Despised and Reviled by EPO Staff
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag — Appendix (Benoît Battistelli's Vichy Syndrome): Georges Henri Léon Battistelli and Charles Robert Battistelli
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag -- Part 11: The BMJV's Tweedledee: Dr Christoph Ernst
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag -- Part 12: A Worthy Successor to His Mentor?
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag -- Part 13: The Failed Promise of a “Good Governance” Guru…
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag -- Part 14: The Notorious Revolving Door
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag -- Part 15: Different Strokes for Different Folks
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag -- Part 16: An Inimitable Duo
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag -- Part 17: Jawohl, Herr Minister!
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag -- Part 18: Zero Tolerance for “Lawless Zones”?
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag -- Part 19: The Deafening Silence of the Media
• EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag -- Part 20: Taking Stock

Moreover, as it turns out, the EPO was outsourced to Microsoft this year. Somehow, however, nobody in the so-called 'news' media bothered mentioning this. Illegal practices well remain hidden below the radar.

Privacy violations and privatisation:

• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part I (Intro): A Fresh Data Protection Scandal Brewing at the EPO?
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part I (Start of Series): Enter the “Cloud of Unknowing…”
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part II: Steve Rowan Announces Microsoft “Outlook Migration”
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part III: The PATRIOT Act and Mass Surveillance
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part IV: The US CLOUD Act Passes Without Public Debate
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part V: The EU GDPR
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part VI: A Not-so-safe Harbour
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part VII: Lipstick on a Pig…
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part VIII: The Aftermath of Schrems II in Europe
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part VIII Addendum
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part IX: Know Your Vendor…
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part X: The Spectre of GDPR…
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part XI: Close Encounters With the Trust-busters…
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part XII: Foreign Corrupt Practices, Bid Rigging and “Slush Funds”
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part XII: Corruption Addendum
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part XIII: A Global 'IP' Player
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part XIV: When is a Conflict of Interest Not a Conflict of Interest?
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Part XV: Has the EPO Sold Out Its “Digital Sovereignty”?
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- The 'Smoking Gun': Hard Evidence That the EPO Has Been Lying About GDPR Compliance
• EPO and Microsoft Collude to Break the Law -- Summing Up: EPO Administrative Council Still Asleep at the Wheel

We hope to have more coverage of this scale. Those articles have reached millions of people and nowadays the wiki index for the EPO (the wiki page alone) receives about 3,000 visits per day. So it's rather clear that there's genuine interest in the substance.

As a side note, the EPO's exodus worsens as staff moves elsewhere or retires early. In a similar vein, top patent applicant IBM is expected (based on rumours that are weeks old) to announce major rounds of layoffs, possibly later today, and the person who managed WSL at Canonical has meanwhile left the company. A blow for Microsoft, for sure... ⬆