Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXVI: A Trojan Horse on the Budget and Finance Committee



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. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part III: Three Missing Votes
  4. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IV: The Founding States
  5. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part V: Germany Says “Ja”
  6. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VI: A Distinct Lack of Dutch Courage
  7. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VII: Luxembourgish Laxity
  8. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VIII: Perfidious Albion and Pusillanimous Hibernia
  9. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IX: More Holes Than Swiss Cheese
  10. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part X: Introducing the Controversial Christian Bock
  11. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XI: “General Bock” - Battistelli's Swiss Apprentice?
  12. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XII: The French Connection
  13. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XIII: Battistelli's Iberian Facilitators - Spain
  14. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XIV: Battistelli's Iberian Facilitators - Portugal
  15. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XV: Et Tu Felix Austria…
  16. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVI: The Demise of the Austrian Double-Dipper
  17. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVII: The Non-Monolithic Nordic Bloc
  18. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVIII: Helsinki's Accord
  19. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IXX: The Baltic States
  20. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XX: The Visegrád Group
  21. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXI: The Balkan League – The Doyen and His “Protégée”
  22. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXII: The Balkan League - North Macedonia and Albania
  23. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXIII: The Balkan League - Bulgaria
  24. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXIV: The Balkan League - Romania
  25. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXV: The Balkan League - Fresh Blood or Same Old, Same Old?
  26. YOU ARE HERE ☞ A Trojan Horse on the Budget and Finance Committee


Serafeim Stasinos
Purported head of the Greek delegation: Serafeim Stasinos.



Summary: The Greek EPO delegation has a special relationship with the Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos regime

We now turn our attention to the delegations representing Greece and its Eastern Mediterranean neighbours, Cyprus and Turkey, and look at their role in the rubber-stamping of Battistelli's infamous "Strike Regulations".



"The problem here is that it is doubtful whether Stasinos really had a legitimate claim on this position."In this part, we will focus on the Greek delegation which, in June 2013, was purportedly headed by Serafeim Stasinos.

The problem here is that it is doubtful whether Stasinos really had a legitimate claim on this position.

Stasinos was the Director-General of the Hellenic Industrial Property Organisation (OBI) from 1 February 2005 until 1 February 2013. From 4 March 2013 onwards, the new Director-General of OBI was Ioannis K. Zaragas (sometimes anglicised as "Zargakas").

This is confirmed by OBI's Annual Report for 2013. [PDF] (local copy )

OBI Annual Report
OBI's Annual Report confirms that Stasinos ceased to be Director-General on 1 February 2013.



Upon taking up his duties as Director-General of OBI, Zaragas also assumed the usual representative functions for Greece on the governing bodies of international organisations dealing with "IP" matters. For example, he represented Greece [PDF] at the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva.

But for some mysterious reason, Zaragas never appeared as head of the Greek delegation on the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation.

"But for some mysterious reason, Zaragas never appeared as head of the Greek delegation on the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation."The EPO Official Journal for June 2013 contains an entry listing the composition of the Administrative Council as of May 2013.

According to this entry, Stasinos was still the head of the Greek delegation and he is designated as "Director-General of OBI".

This is clearly incorrect because - as confirmed by official Greek records - Stasinos had relinquished that position three months earlier in February 2013.

So what exactly was going on here? Why did Zaragas not act as head of the Greek delegation at the 136th meeting of the Administrative Council, given that he had been appointed as Director-General of OBI in March 2013?

Ioannis K. Zaragas
Ioannis K. Zaragas, appointed as Director-General of OBI in March 2013 but never acted as head of delegation on the EPO's Administrative Council.



The first clue to solving this riddle can be found in an EPO announcement (warning: epo.org link) made a year previously, in the summer of 2012.

"A further clue to solving the riddle, can be found in the Minutes of the 136th Council meeting which also lists Stasinos as head of the Greek delegation - but this time designating him as "Chairman of the [EPO's] Budget and Finance Committee"."According to this announcement, at its June 2012 meeting, the Administrative Council elected Stasinos as chairman of its Budget and Finance Committee (BFC) - which is responsible for supervising the EPO's budgetary affairs. Stasinos took over this position from Guus Broesterhuizen, the Dutch delegate - and longtime "buddy" of Battistelli and Kongstad - whose term of office as BFC chairman had just ended.

A further clue to solving the riddle, can be found in the Minutes of the 136th Council meeting which also lists Stasinos as head of the Greek delegation - but this time designating him as "Chairman of the [EPO's] Budget and Finance Committee".

Stasinos as Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee
Minutes of the 136th Council meeting listing Stasinos as "Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee".



Stasinos's tenure as chairman of the BFC lasted until 26 June 2016 (warning: epo.org link). For the duration of that period, he continued to act as nominal head of the Greek delegation on the EPO's Administrative Council.

"However, under Battistelli's régime at the EPO, circumstances were typically far from "normal"."Under normal circumstances, his departure as head of OBI in February 2013 should have terminated his representative duties on the EPO's Administrative Council. However, under Battistelli's régime at the EPO, circumstances were typically far from "normal".

The irregular composition of the Greek delegation between March 2013 and June 2015 seems to have been the result of a backroom deal between the Greeks and the EPO President.

It would appear that the gist of this deal was that Battistelli's "Trojan horse" on the BFC - namely, Stasinos - would be permitted to act as de facto head of the Greek delegation, despite the fact that he lacked any legitimate claim to this position following his dismissal as head of OBI in February 2013.

This GUBU situation has already been commented on by Techrights back in 2017:

"When the Greek representative left the Greek patent office,” an insider from the EPO told us, “Battistelli kept him as president of the finance and budget committee for another two years, illegally of course."


It's not clear what exactly the Greeks received in return for their collusion with Battistelli's machinations. However, according to EPO folklore, when a Greek EPO staff member complained to the Greek delegation about the misconduct of the EPO President he was informed that the delegation was well aware that Battistelli was a tyrant but "we need the money".

By a curious coincidence, the tenure of Ioannis Zaragas as OBI Director-General also ended in June 2015. He was replaced by Ioannis Kaplanis, "an experienced economist with degrees from the London School of Economics (PhD, BSc) and the University of Manchester (MSc)".

Ioannis-Kaplanis
Ioannis Kaplanis replaced Zaragas as head of OBI in June 2015.



At around the same time, there were some changes in the structure of the Greek delegation on the EPO's Administrative Council. The new head of delegation was Kyriacos E. Makaronas, who had been appointed as the chairman of OBI's oversight board (which is officially called its "Administrative Council"). Meanwhile, the newly appointed Director-General of OBI, Ioannis Kaplanis, was assigned the subordinate position of deputy head of delegation.

"The irregular composition of the Greek delegation between March 2013 and June 2015 seems to have been the result of a backroom deal between the Greeks and the EPO President."These changes can be attributed to the formation of a new left-wing SYRIZIA government following the Greek general election in January 2015. It seems that the new government decided to push through a number of "personnel changes" in the upper echelons of the Greek civil service, including the top management of OBI.

This resulted in the "purge" of the pro-Battistelli Zaragas-Stasinos double-act and its replacement by SYRIZIA appointees, Makaronas and Kaplanis.

However, the new delegates appear to have been just as subservient to Battistelli as their predecessors. The likely explanation is that they soon discovered that, despite the change in government, Greece still "needed the money" and they could not afford to cross swords with the "Sun-King" of EPOnia.

"...the new delegates appear to have been just as subservient to Battistelli as their predecessors."Fast forwarding to 2021, the Greek delegation is now headed by a fresh face, Panagiotis G. Kanellopoulos, who was appointed as Director-General of OBI in September 2019.

According to his official curriculum vitae published on the OBI website [PDF] (local copy), Kanellopoulos was born in Athens in 1979 and he holds a bachelor's degree from the faculty of Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and a law degree from the Democritus University of Thrace. He has been practicing Law for more than 10 years, with main areas of expertise the criminal, commercial, civil, and sports law.

Panagiotis Kanellopoulos
New head of the Greek delegation since September 2019: Panagiotis Kanellopoulos.



Based on the track record of the Greek delegation over the last decade or so, only a blind optimist would be inclined to believe that it is likely to make any positive contribution to dealing with the fallout from the recent ILOAT judgments overturning Battistelli's "Strike Regulations".

In the next part we will look at the delegation representing Cyprus.

Recent Techrights' Posts

When the Microsoft Aggressors Rely on Several Law Firms ('Attack Dogs', 'Guns for Hire'), Not Just One, Lawyering Up Against Techrights (Acting on Behalf of Americans Against UK Publishers)
From serving customers at some restaurant he has moved on to bullying people with demand letters
Polygamy, from Catholic Synod on Synodality to Social Control Media & Debian CyberPolygamy
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Only a Third of or 1 in 3 Web-Connected Devices is a Desktop or Laptop, According to statCounter
we can expect Android to widen its lead
 
statCounter Estimates Only 1 in 300 Iranians Would Use Microsoft for Search
Iranians don't quite trust Microsoft
Gemini Links 24/06/2025: ftpd on FreeBSD and Online Small Web Magazine
Links for the day
Google News Does Great Harm by Promoting Slopfarms as Legitimate News Sites
Slopfarms are sites which are 100% LLM slop
Links 24/06/2025: Trouble at "Open" "AI" and ‘Siarhei is Free’
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/06/2025: Stimulants and Subscription Costs for DRM
Links for the day
Links 24/06/2025: OpenAI [sic] May Soon Die (Too Much Debt) and Social Control Media Accused of Being Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda Amplifier
Links for the day
Nirbheek Chauhan in Planet GNOME Explains Why Wayland Pushers Are Losing
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
The Days Are Getting Shorter, the First Half of 2025 is Almost Over
We're gratified to see significant increase in traffic and also positive feedback on the work we do
Turning GNU/Linux Into a Political Football
X (not the site) is Free software
X Server Still Works for Many People
A lot of people will grow suspicious of Wayland boosters/pushers if they persist and insist on using these tactics
Exactly a Week Ago "BetaNews Staff" Said "Betanews Is Growing Alongside You". Since Then Every Article (All by "Camila Nogueira") Has Been LLM Slop.
BetaNews is basically a slopfarm
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 23, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 23, 2025
The "Tarzan Effect" in Compilers and Software
What happens when you forcibly make things 'work', either by hacks or by disregarding warnings (like those that compilers tend to issue)?
Gemini Links 23/06/2025: Mass Tourism, Hair Love, and Google Gemini as a Googlebomb
Links for the day
Law Firm Burgess Mee Does Not Fully Deny Participating in Abusive Litigation for Serial Strangler From Microsoft
I am not unfamiliar with these tactics
The Modus Operandi of Wayland Pushers: Make It Political
do what I say or you're a nazi...
Links 23/06/2025: RFE/RL Contributor Vladyslav Yesypenko Released, Recording Industry Cutbacks
Links for the day
Brett Wilson LLP Solicitors (M): Over 99.9% of Our E-mail is Self-Marketing, We Send You 3.5MB E-mails for Less Than 1KB of Text
Why would tech people entrust legal matters to such people?
Peter Moon's (Computerworld) Interview With Richard Stallman
Stallman: If you want freedom don't follow Linus Torvalds
At What Point Does Outsourcing Constitute Malpractice?
Brett Wilson LLP's new staff page is misleading
United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sailing to GNU/Linux, According to statCounter
countries in that region will quickly learn the price of neglecting digital sovereignty
From Do Your Own Research to Do Your Own Search
The Web is full of garbage; search engines amplify this garbage
More People Moving to Geminispace?
at age 6+ Gemini Protocol seems to have gained some maturity and it seems like more people use it
Permutation in LLMs Does, Inevitably, Change Meanings and Therefore LLMs Cannot Properly Rephrase or Summarise Texts
LLMs lack actual grasp or comprehension of what they spew out
Links 23/06/2025: Many Security Breaches, Population Declines
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/06/2025: "America at the Crossroads" and OpenWRT Surgery
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 22, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 22, 2025
Pure Dove
Different means different, and sometimes those who "deviate" from "the norm" have a point
Censorship is a Sign of Weakness Which Invites More Censorship Attempts
revolutionaries don't succumb to pressure from bullies
Why It's Unlikely That LLM Slop Will Dominate the Web in the Long Run
Slopfarms will eventually perish (they have no actual value) and "survivors" on the Web will be sites that never depended on search engines and social control media
GNU/Linux in Argentina Now Measured Near 5%
Like in central Europe, they must be seeing an increasingly hostile US
BetaNews is Fake News, Composed by LLM Slop
nothing in BetaNews is written by humans anymore
Links 22/06/2025: Giving Up on Smartphones and 'Jaws' at 50
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/06/2025: Furniture Construction and Bubble for Comments
Links for the day
Links 22/06/2025: Windows TCO Tales and YouTube Getting More Hostile to Users
Links for the day
The FSF Board and FSF Beard
So the FSF's Board has grown
Law Firms Facing the Consequences for Patently Abusive Litigation on Behalf of Microsoft Employees Who Got Arrested for Strangulation and Had Done Even Worse Things
Having spent 1.5 years bullying me with patronising letters on behalf of Microsofters, last week they got served a massive bill and, in effect, lost the Hearing
New Report From the EPO's Staff Representatives in The Hague (LSCTH) Reveals Many Unsolved Issues
Local Staff Committee The Hague (LSCTH) wrote to staff just before the weekend
LLMs Breaking Everything
Computing and the Net became a playground for scammers and "bros", like people who "invented" fake currencies and also try to tell us that LLMs spewing out things will have some real value
Links 22/06/2025: More Slop Lawsuits (Copyrights) and "America’s Oligarch Problem"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/06/2025: Gigantic Toolchest and Annoying Bots
Links for the day