Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part II: A “Unanimous” Endorsement?

Series parts:

  1. The EPO's Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part I: Let the Sunshine In!
  2. YOU ARE HERE ☞ A “Unanimous” Endorsement?


EPO President Benoît Battistelli, Principal Director Elodie Bergot, Vice-Presidents Željko Topić and Raimund Lutz
The EPO senior management team responsible for the drafting of the "Strike Regulations".
Clockwise from top left: Office President Benoît Battistelli, Principal Director Elodie Bergot, Vice-Presidents Željko Topić and Raimund Lutz.



Summary: Battistelli's illegal "Strike Regulations" didn't materialise without help from other people; looking back, we learn how those unlawful provisions came about and who's accountable for them

The EPO "Strike Regulations" which were recently struck down by the ILOAT were drafted by Battistelli's "Human Resources" management team.



At the time in question the EPO's HR Department was controlled by the notorious duo of Principal Director Elodie Bergot and Vice-President Željko Topić.

"...this meeting of the Council was also used by Battistelli to present the delegates with the outcome of an "internal investigation" conducted for the purpose of whitewashing his Croatian bulldog, Željko Topić."But it's important to realise that the "Strike Regulations" drafted by the EPO's senior management team would never have come into effect without the complicity of the Administrative Council at its 136th meeting which took place in Munich on 26 and 27 June 2013.

By a curious coincidence - as previously reported by Techrights back in 2015 – this meeting of the Council was also used by Battistelli to present the delegates with the outcome of an "internal investigation" conducted for the purpose of whitewashing his Croatian bulldog, Željko Topić.

"These documents allow us to obtain a better picture of what went on at the meeting, in particular the details of the deliberation and vote on the proposed "Strike Regulations"."At the time in question, Topić was the subject of a series of allegations connected with his former position as head of the Croatian State Intellectual Property Office. A lot of awkward questions were being asked about his EPO appointment and Battistelli was keen to silence the critical voices.

The 2015 Techrights posting about Battistelli's whitewash of Topić includes copies of the official minutes [PDF] of the June 2013 Administrative Council meeting and the associated "Summary of Decisions". [PDF]

These documents allow us to obtain a better picture of what went on at the meeting, in particular the details of the deliberation and vote on the proposed "Strike Regulations".

The composition of the Administrative Council as of May 2013 - i.e. directly prior to the 136th meeting - was published in the EPO's Official Journal (OJ).

In some cases the delegates listed in the OJ did not attend the meeting but were replaced by their alternates. This is normal practice when delegates have conflicting engagements.

The list of actual attendees at the 136th Council meeting can be found in the official minutes [PDF] of the meeting.

It's worth mentioning in passing that António Campinos also attended the meeting as an observer in his capacity as then head of the EU's trademark agency OHIM/EUIPO in Alicante.

From the minutes of the meeting it can be seen that one senior member of Team Battistelli played a key role in persuading the Council to vote in favour of the proposed "Strike Regulations".

"It's worth mentioning in passing that António Campinos also attended the meeting..."This was the Vice-President Raimund Lutz who was head of the Directorate of International and Legal Affairs.

Lutz was regularly used by Battistelli for the purpose of duping the Council delegates into rubber-stamping all sorts of questionable measures and at the same time dissuading them from asking too many awkward questions.

So it was very much "business as usual" when Lutz was wheeled out at the 136th Council meeting in June 2013 in order to assure the delegates that the proposed "Strike Regulations" were good to go and could be waved through without the need for any further discussion.

Lutz informed the delegates that the new regulations "had been proposed considering general legal principles, European rights and ILOAT standards".

"Lutz was regularly used by Battistelli for the purpose of duping the Council delegates into rubber-stamping all sorts of questionable measures and at the same time dissuading them from asking too many awkward questions."It's worth pointing out that he never actually claimed that the proposed measures were in conformity with "general legal principles, European rights and ILOAT standards" – he only said that these principles, rights and standards had been "considered" when drafting the regulations!

It is not without reason that Lutz has been described as a "veritable virtuoso of legal sophistry".

Role of EPO's Vice-President Raimund Lutz
The EPO's "virtuoso of legal sophistry", Vice-President Raimund Lutz, helped to "persuade" the Council delegates to rubber-stamp the proposed measures.



Both the official minutes and the "Summary of Decisions" contain a record of the vote on the adoption of Battistelli's "Strike Regulations".

Record of the Administrative Council vote
Record of the Administrative Council vote on the adoption of Battistelli's "Strike Regulations".



From this it can be seen that out of a total of 38 delegations, only 35 actually voted.

This means that 3 delegations did not even bother to take part in the vote.

"...3 delegations did not even bother to take part in the vote."Of the 35 delegations that participated, 28 voted in favour and 7 abstained.

Article 35 (4) of the European Patent Convention specifies that abstentions "shall not be considered as votes".

"In the coming parts we will take a closer look at the members of the delegations..."This means that - according to the official narrative - the proposed measures were adopted "unanimously" with 28 votes in favour.

In the coming parts we will take a closer look at the members of the delegations and how they did - or did not - vote on that occasion.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
 
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October
Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Motorcycling in Central Oregon, Protocol Styles and the Flag of Sark
Links for the day
Links 30/09/2025: Death Sentences, Internet Censorship, and Internet Shutdowns
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Social Control Media and ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day
Richard Stallman About to Give More Talks in Europe, Some Confirmed Already
In Göteborg
Links 30/09/2025: CERN in "Have I Been Pwned" and More Windows TCO Blunders
Links for the day
Microsoft Canonical is Selling Mass Surveillance and Back Doors as "Security for Ubuntu"
If you are looking for a GNU/Linux distro to use, just remember that Microsoft has Ubuntu in the bag
Justice for Wildlife
animals cannot speak to humans who hate animals
Cowboys Gonna Be Cowboys (on the Internet, They're Not a New Problem)
Boys will be boys
Cowboys of the "Left" and Cowboys of the "Right"
Don't believe the lie that this is some "leftist" thing
When Codes of Conduct Serve to Protect Criminals From Much-Deserved Scrutiny
CoCs are typically unfit for purpose because enforcement lacks context and suitable understanding of the full background (the "full story")
It Took the Open Source Initiative (OSI) 4+ Years to Address the 'Data Breach' or Data Protection Violation Reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) in March 2025
We may never know the dialogue or its nature
Even Microsoft's Biggest Boosters (and Media Operatives) Are Turning Against Microsoft
Expect many more layoffs before the fake "results" next month
GNU Was Right 42+ Years Ago
Since then the abusive, user-hostile technology has spread like mushrooms
Old Isn't Always Inadequate
How many gadgets manufactured today (in 2025) will still work in 2075?
The Monkey Business of Rust People
Compatibility won't matter
Almost Half of the FSFE's Money (the Fake 'FSF', Misusing the Brand) Comes From Vodafone
That money always comes with strings, even if they're invisible to most of us
Microsoft Lunduke Spreads Deliberate Lies to Incite Online Mobs
Has he lost his reading comprehension skills?
Our 19th Birthday (in Just Over 5 Weeks From Now)
We meanwhile have ongoing, solid plans to cover patent-related issues when the FSF turns 40
British GNU/Linux Distro FydeOS Tops DistroWatch
That seems like a decent site and decent effort to keep an eye on
We'll Soon Have 75,000 GemText Pages
avoid many perils of today's Web
Google Used Free Software to Build a Monopoly. Now Google Kicks Free Software to the Curb
The "G" in "Google" does not stand for GNU. It never did. It's just another greedy company.
Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Retro Hardware, Federated Fragmentation, and Nex Server Written in C
Links for the day
4 More Days Till "4 decades, 4 freedoms, 4 all users"
We are now just 4 days away from the rare anniversary
Two Months After Merging to Hide GitHub Losses Microsoft is Doing It Again (This Time Windows)
Merging those two together is not a sign of strength but a tightening of budget
Speculations About the Next Large Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs
the mass layoffs are likely to happen on week 3 or 4 in October
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 29, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 29, 2025