Bonum Certa Men Certa

Postscriptum: Carl Josefsson Sidelined From G 1/21!

Fritz Blumer and not Calle Josefsson
Josefsson must step aside and will be replaced by a Swiss member of the EPO's EBA, Fritz Blumer.



Summary: The 'real judges' of Benoît Battistelli and the cronies of António Campinos (whom he pressures to allow illegal software patents) have gone too far; and now the public is losing confidence in the integrity of the boards, even the highest or most glorified one

This postscriptum to the series about case no. G 1/21 is occasioned by the interlocutory decision of the Enlarged Board of Appeal, taken just over a week ago on 17 May 2021.



At the time when the series was being written, the Enlarged Board of Appeal had made no identifiable public reaction to the allegations of partiality against the Chairman and internal members of the panel assigned to deal with case no. G€ 1/21.

"For the purpose of considering these matters, the Enlarged Board sat in an altered composition without the members who were under suspicion of partiality."However, the situation changed rather dramatically on 17 May 2021 when the Enlarged Board convened to consider partiality objections raised by the appellant, Rohde & Schwarz GmbH.

Following deliberation the Enlarged Board issued an interlocutory decision, which has been published online here. (Warning: epo.org link)

The appellant raised objections against the Chairman (Carl Josefsson) and two other internal members (identified as "X" and "Y" in the decision).

A further member of the panel (identified as "Z" in the decision) informed the Enlarged Board that he was involved in the preparation of Article 15a RPBA and that his involvement could be relevant to the objections made by the appellant. He therefore asked the Enlarged Board to decide on his continued participation in the case.

For the purpose of considering these matters, the Enlarged Board sat in an altered composition without the members who were under suspicion of partiality.

The altered composition was as follows:

Fritz Blumer (Chairman)

Win van der Eijk

Tamás Bokor

Richard Arnold

Evangelos Chatzikos

Pascal Gryczka

Giovanni Pricolo


From this we can deduce that the partiality objections under consideration related to the following members of the original panel: Carl Josefsson, Ingo Beckedorf, Gunnar Eliasson and Andrea Ritzka.

The Enlarged Board in its altered composition decided that the partiality objections against Josefsson and one other internal member (the person identified as "Z") were substantiated.

Josefsson will now be replaced by Fritz Blumer, a Swiss member of the Enlarged Board, who chaired the interlocutory session of 17 May.

Fritz Blumer
Fritz Blumer will now take over the position of Chairman



As far as can be determined, the other person removed from the case ("Z") is Ingo Beckedorf. Beckedorf was reputed to have been involved in the drafting of the disputed regulation and he confirmed this in his own voluntary submissions to the Enlarged Board. Beckedorf will now be replaced by the Hungarian Tamás Bokor.

Information from sources close to the action suggests that many senior legally qualified members of the Enlarged Board were becoming increasingly critical of the manner in which Josefsson was conducting the procedure.

Josefsson gave the impression of being oblivious to the widely articulated - and entirely legitimate - public concern about his actions. His continued participation in the procedure risked bringing the Enlarged Board – and by extension the Boards as a whole – into public disrepute.

It seems that a majority of the Enlarged Board decided that it was time to stage a "palace revolt" to sideline Josefsson in the hope of preventing any further reputational damage.

Most observers agree that the interlocutory decision of 17 May is a hefty slap in the face for Josefsson who should have voluntarily requested the Enlarged Board to recuse him, rather than waiting for the appellant to raise an objection to his participation.

The other member who was replaced (Beckedorf) had the good grace to inform the Enlarged Board that there might be grounds for questioning his impartiality and he actively requested the Enlarged Board to consider his position.

Josefsson, on the other hand, stubbornly insisted upon remaining as Chairman until he was forcibly removed in response to the appellant's objection.

This raises serious questions about Josefsson's sense of judgement in politically sensitive cases like G 1/21. He really does seem to be suffering from a bad case of the EPOnian "tunnel vision" syndrome.

The IP blogosphere has been remarkably restrained in its reaction to the interlocutory decision of 17 May. The decision was posted on the Kluwer Patent Blog by Thorsten Bausch and it attracted a number of comments. IPKat also reported on the decision under the heading "EPO responds to accusations of perceived bias in G1/21 (ViCo oral proceedings)" but so far the posting has attracted few comments. Or maybe Rose from AstraZeneca has been busy with her red pencil, helping to keep the EPO safely immune from too much criticism. Otherwise, there has been very little public exposure given to the matter.

It now remains to be seen how the Enlarged Board in its new composition will deal with the case after Josefsson has been sidelined.

It's still too early to say whether his removal was just a carefully choreographed move for the sake of "optics" or whether it will really turn out to be a genuine game-changer.

The interlocutory decision of 17 May gives some hope for a more balanced procedure free from Josefsson's visible influence.

However, the visible influence which Josefsson could still exert over the proceedings from behind the scenes should not be underestimated.

Rule 12d(3) of the EPC (warning: epo.org link), introduced by Battistelli's 2016 "reform", makes all internal members of the Enlarged Board dependent upon Josefsson's goodwill for the purpose of obtaining a positive "opinion" on their reappointment. In other words, no internal member of the Boards can afford to dirty their copybook with the Overlord of Haar, who evidently plans to remain on his throne until 2027 at least.

This effectively means that all internal members of the reconstituted panel are beholden to Josefsson despite the fact that he has been officially sidelined from case no. G€ 1/21.

Thus, although Josefsson can no longer influence the outcome of the procedure directly, he still has considerable means at his disposal to influence it indirectly.

We conclude this postscriptum by mentioning that the hearing in case no. G 1/21 is scheduled to take place by videoconference on 28 May 2021.

Members of the public wishing to attend as observers are required to register here. (warning: epo.org link and deadline imminent; it says "please register online below (registration form in English) by 27 May 2021.")

Watch this space for further updates…

Recent Techrights' Posts

Lies Need to be Corrected
the Court never invited us
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 16, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 16, 2025
Techrights Turns 19 in 3 Weeks
coverage of suppressed topics and protecting all sources/whistleblowers
International E-Waste Day Same Day as End of Vista 10
message from Akira Urushibata
The EPO's Central Staff Committee Presents Evidence That Staff Compensation Lowered While the Office Increases Income by Illegally Granting Invalid Patents
These people become millionaires by doing illegal things
Second or Third Wave of Microsoft Mass Layoffs in October 2025, This Time Portugal
Those are just the ones we know about, there may be several more
'Help Net Security' (helpnetsecurity.com) May Have Become a Slopfarm as Well
Zeljka Zorz, Editor-in-Chief at Help Net Security, was reported to us
Gemini Links 17/10/2025: Rant About Network Solutions, Strange Anomaly on Lagrange
Links for the day
EPO Staff Representation Lacks Social Dialogue With Relevant Management, Controversial and Sometimes Illegal Policies Implemented Without Necessary Input
"In this open letter, the CSC requests that the President submits an agenda item in the next available General Consultative Committee (GCC) meeting on setting up regular meetings between the CSC and the higher management of DG1."
Links 16/10/2025: Political Leftovers and Gemini Protocol Links
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Guardian Digital (linuxsecurity.com), Slashdot, Google News, and More
Maybe one day, once the bubble pops completely, Google News will just outright delist all slopfarms
Lufthansa Modern Slavery, Joerg Jaspert (ganneff) & Debian NSB Softwareentwicklung charade
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 16/10/2025: US Starting More Trade Wars With China, CIA War on Venezuela
Links for the day
SUSE Blog is Still LLM Slop, Marketing Manager at SUSE Cannot Write
Would you buy from a company or seek support from a company that cannot even write (or fakes writing)?
Pretend You're Not Dead: Microsoft Spent Almost Two Decades Rebranding Things as "Cloud, Then "AI", Now "XBox" and "Quantum"
"AI" bubble pops, Microsoft harping about "quantum" already
IBM Allegedly Found New Tricks for Silent Layoffs: LPI, Then MIS (Not PIP)
Remember that "Red Hat layoffs" won't be reported after the bluewashing
Links 16/10/2025: Red Lines and Feeding of Microsoft Trolls
Links for the day
MIT as a Propaganda Mill of GAFAM, Paid by GAFAM
"the news" today
Links 16/10/2025: Lies Euphemised as ‘Dueling Versions of Reality’ and Microsoft "Open" "Hey Hi" Resorts to Porn as No Business Model Was Found
Links for the day
The Local Staff Committee Munich (Representation of the EPO's Staff) Explains When Cluster of Pregnancies May Result in Reduced Pay
"...even one week of part-time working is sufficient to reduce the salary you perceive during the entirety of your maternity leave."
Another Black Eye for 'Secure Boot', Microsoft Media Tries to Blame "Linux"
It enables Microsoft to remotely control computers, even computers that don't run Windows and never had any Microsoft software installed
Slopwatch: UbuntuPIT, linuxsecurity.com, and Various Slopfarms in Google News Attacking "Linux"
A new survey of the Web said that the majority of the Web is now slop (that's being said in the news this week)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 15, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Links 16/10/2025: Increased Use of Social Control Media Surveillance in US, French Rage Over Pensions
Links for the day
Links 15/10/2025: Qantas Airways Loses Control of Sensitive Data and Software Patents Are Being Thrown Out
Links for the day
Vista 10 is 'Dead', Here's Why People Should Move to GNU/Linux (or the BSDs)
Today we try to make an outline of reasons move away from Windows to GNU/Linux
Our Sites Continue to Improve
LLM slop has had no noticeable impact on us
Gemini Links 15/10/2025: Neovim, Helix Compared and Gemlog.blue Now Closed
Links for the day
Links 15/10/2025: Mass Layoffs at Amazon, OneDrive Spyware Revved Up, More 'Gen Z Protests'
Links for the day
The EPO's Staff Engagement Survey 2025 is Already Tainted by Intimidation by EPO Management (Trying to Influence Outcomes by Scaring Genuine, Honest Critics)
"[W]e have received reports that, following the previous survey, teams with negative responses were reproached or questioned about their answers..."
The DDoS Attacks by Microsoft's Scam Altman and Other Slop Charlatans and Frauds is Hurting the FSF, Delinking It From Copyleft Projects
This impacts a lot more than access to the licences
Microsoft Scanning Faces in Photos People Upload to Microsoft (Even Unconsciously), Slashdot Turns Report About It Into "Microsoft Sez" (Says)
Or "let's repeat the lies from a PR person/Microsoft's publicist"
[Teaser] Angel Aledo Lopez the Manipulator (Nepotism, Poll Rigging, and Other EPO Corruption)
We'll discuss this later today or tomorrow, based on internal EPO material
Attacks on Techrights Are Only Making Techrights Bigger and Even More Popular
A week ago they offered to settle with us
Epic Metaphor for End of IBM: "The IBM Demolition is Down to the Last Shards!"
Nothing lasts forever
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 14, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Proprietary and DRM Prisons Spiralling Down the Sinkhole? Not Just Yet.
Let's hope that more people will flee to GNU/Linux
The European Patent Office (EPO), the Second-Largest Institution in Europe, is Cracking Down on Recreational Activities
Without AMICALE activities, and as staff already says it's pressured to work more for less, how can the EPO recruit bright people?
Transparency: FSFE financial reports exclude speaker fees and expenses
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock