Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part III: Three Missing Votes

Series parts:

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


Hungary's Bendzsel and Ficsor
Hungary's Bendzsel and Ficsor were evidently too busy with other matters to come to Munich in June 2013.



Summary: A look at who declined (or failed) to participate in Benoît Battistelli's attack on workers; or, put another way, who failed to object to unlawful EPO regulations

We begin our "deep dive" investigation into the rubber-stamping of Battistelli's "Strike Regulations" in June 2013 by looking at the three Administrative Council delegations that absented themselves from the vote.



The delegations in question are: Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Liechtenstein.

"The delegations in question are: Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Liechtenstein."In the case of Hungary, the nominated representatives at the time in question were Battistelli's "friends in Budapest", Miklós Bendzsel and his deputy Mihály Ficsor.

However, neither Bendzsel nor Ficsor turned up in Munich for the 136th meeting of the EPO Administrative Council.

According to the records [PDF] of the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office (HIPO), Ficsor was off attending a diplomatic conference convened by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Marrakech for signing a "Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled".

That sounds impressive but it's rather surprising to learn that to this day Hungary does not appear to be a contracting party to the Marrakech Treaty.

"...the statement in the Hungarian records concerning Bendzsel's participation is contradicted by the minutes of the 136th meeting of the EPO Administrative Council which list the participating Hungarian representatives as Judit Hajdú and Johanna Stadler."So it's a bit of a mystery what exactly Ficsor was up to in Marrakech in June 2013 when the Administrative Council was voting on Battistelli's "Strike Regulations".

As for Bendzsel, the records of the HIPO refer to "Participation by the President of the HIPO and his delegation in the 136th meeting of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation in Munich. Main topics: developments concerning the European patent with unitary effect, cooperation activity with member states and other countries, questions relating to the operation of the European Patent Organisation."

However, the statement in the Hungarian records concerning Bendzsel's participation is contradicted by the minutes of the 136th meeting of the EPO Administrative Council which list the participating Hungarian representatives as Judit Hajdú (pronounced like "Heidi") and Johanna Stadler.

"Bendzsel's absence is a bit of a riddle given the fact that he was the Deputy Chairman of the Administrative Council at the time."From this it would appear that Bendzsel was not in fact present in Munich or at least that he did not attend the Council meeting on the occasion in question.

Bendzsel's absence is a bit of a riddle given the fact that he was the Deputy Chairman of the Administrative Council at the time. But he obviously had some more urgent business to attend to than protecting the fundamental rights of EPO staff.

Judit Hajdú
Judit Hajdú who unfortunately appears to have missed the vote on Battistelli's "Strike Regulations"!



If the EPO records are to be believed, the acting head of delegation for Hungary at the 136th meeting of the Administrative Council was Judit Hajdú, an electrical engineer and head of the HIPO's Patent Department.

A hymn of praise to Ms Hajdú can be found on the HIPO website:

Judit Hajdú is an outstanding personality in the field of patent law. Her leadership and professional guidance have contributed greatly to the development of a uniform, high quality and modern patent examination practice and to the establishment of legality. Her focus, organisation and humanity have made her a respected and respected figure in her department and throughout the [Hungarian Patent] Office. [...]

In recent years, she has been particularly active in the field of the patentability of computer-implemented inventions, and has shown great professionalism in this field. She is also closely involved in the harmonisation of patent law and the further development of the European patent system. She regularly represents the Office at meetings of the relevant committees of the EU, WIPO and EPO.


"In the case of the Czech Republic, the nominated representatives at the time in question were Josef Kratochvíl and his deputy, SvÄ•tlana Kopecká."By a mysterious stroke of misfortune, when Battistelli's "Strike Regulations" came up on the agenda during the June 2013 meeting, it would appear that Ms Hajdú missed the vote.

In the case of the Czech Republic, the nominated representatives at the time in question were Josef Kratochvíl and his deputy, SvÄ•tlana Kopecká.

In the EPO records, Kratochvíl is listed as an attendee at the meeting but, as in the case of Ms Hajdú from Hungary, he appears to have missed the vote on the "Strike Regulations".

Josef Kratochvíl confused
Josef Kratochvíl is listed as an attendee at the 136th meeting of the AC but it seems that he forgot to vote!



In the case of Liechtenstein, the nominated representatives at the time in question were Isabel Frommelt and Esther Schindler.

According to the EPO records, nobody attended the meeting on behalf of Liechtenstein and it is not clear on what grounds the nominated representatives absented themselves.

Isabel Frommelt and Esther Schindler
Liechtenstein delegates - Isabel Frommelt (l.) and Esther Schindler (r.) - absent without explanation.



Readers will no doubt be reassured to learn that none of the delegates who were absent for the vote on Battistelli's "Strike Regulations" suffered any prejudice to their subsequent careers as a result of their dereliction of duty to EPO staff back in June 2013.

The former head of the Hungarian delegation, Miklós Bendzsel, sailed off into the sunset of retirement in 2016.

"The former head of the Hungarian delegation, Miklós Bendzsel, sailed off into the sunset of retirement in 2016."As previously reported by Techrights, his deputy Mihály Ficsor the "well connected IP maximalist" from the Hungarian IPO recently became a Principal Director at the EPO in charge of Legal Affairs. According to comments posted on the Kluwer Patent Blog, Ficsor's name is even being touted as a possible successor to António Campinos.

As for Josef Kratochvíl, who to this day remains the head of the Czech delegation, he was elected as Chairman (warning: epo.org link) of the Administrative Council at the end of 2018.

Meanwhile, in Liechtenstein, both Isabel Frommelt and Esther Schindler have continued to pursue successful careers in the diplomatic service of the alpine micro-principality.

"Meanwhile, in Liechtenstein, both Isabel Frommelt and Esther Schindler have continued to pursue successful careers in the diplomatic service of the alpine micro-principality."Frommelt was appointed as Liechtenstein's Ambassador to Germany in August 2017 and Schindler is her deputy. Schindler was also appointed as a "Brexit Coordinator" at the Liechtenstein Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2018.

In the next part we will look at how the majority of the delegations from the EPO's founding states voted in favour of Battistelli's "Strike Regulations".

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