EPO

From Techrights

The European Patent Office (EPO) has been granting software patents in Europe despite the law explicitly forbidding it. The profit motive ultimately compromised quality. There are even more mischievous practices going on, especially after the EPO's former head, Alison Brimelow, got replaced by a megalomaniac called Benoît Battistelli, who drove away anything or anyone who threatens his undemocratic ambition of total power. Techrights wrote about the EPO in the following posts, organised chronologically, with addition of the following colour coding:

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Scope	Repression	Labour	Above the law	Credibility
Software (abstract) patents	Institutional abuse	Staff suicides	Ignoring court orders or due process	Budgetary issues
Patents on life	Censorship/Gagging	Crushing protests	Crushing oversight or other branches	Reputation issues (EU)
Patent maximalism/UPC	DDOS	Union-busting	Character assassination/Defamation	Favouritism/Nepotism
Patent trolls	Legal bullying	Abolishing workers' rights	Propaganda/Misinformation/Paying the media	Conflict of interest/Dubious connections
Systemic synthesis	Illegal surveillance	State within a state	Alleged bribery	Organisational crisis

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2016

January

• The Connection Between the EPO’s Investigative Unit/Battistelli Policies and EPO Suicides
• Battistelli and His Bodyguards: Paranoia, Megalomania, or Both? Are China-Style ‘Suicide Nets’ Next on the EPO’s Agenda?
• Dutch Media’s Coverage of Protest at The Hague Leaves VP1 Minnoye a New Laughing Stock of the EPO’s Staff
• Dutch Television Talks About EPO Conflict and Today’s Protest at The Hague, Previous Protests Too
• Independent Dutch Investigation to Commence Into the Working Conditions at the European Patent Office in Rijswijk
• EPO Protests Earn Coverage on Dutch Television, Programme Starts Now (10PM CET)
• Over a Thousand People Protest at The Hague; The EPO’s PR Team is Lying Again About the Busting of Staff Unions, Pretends There is “Union Recognition”
• EPO Staff at The Hague to Protest Shortly; Here is Why We Should All Support Them
• No More Defeatism: Battistelli’s Days at the European Patent Office May be Numbered
• EPO Protest in The Hague This Week Targets Next Wave of Silent (by Gag Orders) Union Busting
• The EPO Goes Lobbying Even More Heavily in Brussels, Reveals New Job Advertisement
• Newly-Released Badinter Report Shows That by Treating Staff Like Garbage the European Patent Office is Violating Fundamental Rights
• Philip Cordery Says the EPO Situation is Well Known to All, as Attested by the Numerous Press Articles, Political Actions, or Administrative Recommendations (Spanish translation)
• Süddeutsche Zeitung After FTI Consulting Deal: EPO Ghostwriter or Journalism?
• Dismissal of EPO Staff Representatives Does Not Eliminate Them as EPO Staff Sticks Together, Shares the Burden, the Pain (Spanish translation)
• Union-Busting Strategies Backfire: After Additional EPO Protests/Actions (Over 2,000 in Attendance With More to Come) a STRIKE is Being Planned
• Additional Information About EPO Management and Its Abuses, as Told by Anonymous Comments
• EPO Implicitly Acknowledges Declining Patent Quality by Agreeing to Finally Dump Some Monsanto GMO Patents
• EPO President Battistelli and Vice-President Topić Are Having Political Problems
• Two More EPO Protests on Their Way, Thousands of Employees Projected to Attend Overall
• In Unison, Nations Hop Aboard the Unitary Patent Train Wreck, For (Foreign) Corporate Gain at Europe’s Expense
• The EPO’s PR Team May be Trying a New ‘Damage Control’ Strategy Amid Historic Protests by Staff
• Benoît Battistelli Blasted by Pierre-Yves Le Borgn’, Who Initiates More Political Actions Against Him (Spanish translation)
• The Next Phase of Union Busting: Battistelli Now Cutting Salaries of Yet More EPO Staff Representatives
• EPO/FTI Consulting-funded Event for UPC Will Be Stuffed With Mega-corporations from the United States (Spanish translation)
• SLAPP-Happy EPO Vice-President Željko Topić Loses Croatian Defamation Lawsuit -- AGAIN!
• Poor Journalism From Süddeutsche Zeitung Perpetuates the EPO Management's Lies
• EPO Management and Its PR Team a Den of Liars, Even Lying to Their Own Staff
• Battistelli “Exacerbated the Penalties Which Were Recommended by the Disciplinary Committees for All Three EPO Unionists” (Under Mock Trial)
• Tomorrow's EPO Protest to Target Union-busting Actions Disguised as 'Social Dialogue' or 'Union Recognition'
• Techrights Needs Translations as Another EPO Staff Protest Looms
• French Politician Philip Cordery Calls the EPO Authoritarian, Says the Union-busting Decisions Are Purely Scandalous (Spanish translation)
• European Patent Office (EPO) is Not “the Real World” But a Parallel Universe Without Any Regard for the Rule of Law
• Battistelli's Legitimacy Under Political Fire After He Fired Staff Representatives, Claims He's Neither Suitable Nor Eligible to be EPO President (Spanish translation)
• Team Battistelli Has Brought Dirty Politics to the EPO, Pension Cuts May be “Blatantly Illegal”
• Unitary Patent (UPC) Highlights Reality Behind the EPO’s Management and Its Multinational/Overseas Bosses (Spanish translation)
• Battistelli Hopes That People Forget (or Don’t Know About) Criminal Charges Against Željko Topić, But Croatian Media Does Not Forget as Election Imminent
• Summarising the Latest Attacks by the European Patent Office (EPO) on European Society, With Complicity of Corporate Media
• The EPO “Hearing Was a Mockery.”
• The Witch-hunt Against Elizabeth Hardon Leads Back to Battistelli
• EPO Staff Protests in Berlin and Vienna
• How the EPO Prevented Scapegoats ('Defendants') in Its Mock 'Trials' From Actually Presenting a Defense (Spanish translation)
• Hundreds of EPO Staff at The Hague (Including Managers) Spontaneously Protested Today, Making Almost Half of All Staff Present
• Pierre-Yves Le Borgn' Lashes Out at EPO for Firing Staff Representatives (Spanish translation)
• Massive EPO Protests After Team Battistelli Fires Legitimate Critics and Staff Representatives (Even Those With Young Children) (Spanish translation)
• The EPO is Manufacturing Propaganda Again, Releasing Misleading Figures to the Media (Spanish translation)
• Germany Needs to Respect the European Patent Convention and Stop Issuing Software Patents, Also Reject UPC
• Transparency is Sunlight in the Kingdom of the EPO Vampires (Spanish translation)
• The European Patent Office (EPO) Still Quietly Abusive (Spanish translation)
• How the EPO Imposes Secrecy Around Mock 'Trials' and What the EPO Calls 'Violence'
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