EPO

From Techrights

Revision as of 21:12, 1 March 2016

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:

2016

March

• Team Battistelli’s New Media Strategy at Times of EPO Emergency
• Ongoing Investigation: Why Mainstream Media -- and German Media in Particular -- Has Mostly Ignored Latest Developments at the EPO
• EPO Attracts Complaints Over (Mental) Torture Against Staff

February

• Update on Civil Complaints and Criminal Complaints Against EPO Vice-President Željko Topić in Lufthansa/Airplus Case
• Problems of Governance in International Organizations: the EPO
• Media Alert: Spokespeople of the EPO Are Lying to Journalists
• Confirmed by Dutch Media (Telegraaf): Benoît Battistelli Makes Unreasonable Compensation Demands
• EPO “Management by Fear… Within a System Which is Not Subject to Any Outside Control.”
• Battistelli-Led EPO “Led to Tensions and Even to Suicides Among Employees, Say the Unions”
• Member States Are Turning Against “Tyrannical” Chief of European Patent Office (Benoît Battistelli)
• Next Week Looks Likely to Bring Another Battistelli Crisis at the EPO
• Article Translation (de Volkskrant): EPO Employees Are Tired of Tyranny and Take to the Streets
• Censorship in Land of So-called ‘Social Dialogue’: EPO is Still Blocking Techrights Web Site, But There Are Exceptions/Loopholes
• Even Battistelli-Funded Media Admits That Battistelli is in Deep Trouble Right Now (Spanish translation)
• New Evidence Emerges, Showing That Unitary Patent (UPC) is Indeed an SME Killer That Negatively Affects Europe for Patent Lawyers’ Sake (Spanish translation)
• Dutch Report: “External Investigation” Likely to be Launched Into “the Punitive Measures That Battistelli Imposed on Union Members.”
• Repurposed Misinformation Campaign: The EPO’s PR Team is Lying to The Register in Order to Help Battistelli Save Face
• Dutch Media Reinforces Rumours That Battistelli is on His Way Out, Only a Matter of Money Now
• The English Version of the Central Staff Committee’s Open Letter to the Praesidium of the Administrative Council Regarding Battistelli’s ‘Social Study’ EPO Propaganda
• Nearly a Thousand EPO Employees Prepared to Go on Strike in Just a Fortnight, Team Battistelli Getting Desperate to Stop That
• More Fire Power for Team Battistelli With New Promotion of French Lady
• European Patent Office: Battistelli Gets Official Warning
• The Mass Media Recognises This May be the End of the Battistelli Regime
• Further Militarisation of the EPO
• The EPO’s Investigative Unit (I.U.) Called ‘Gestapo’ on Dutch Television
• Possible Connections Found Between WIPO Misconduct and “a Dozen Serious Criminal Charges” Against EPO’s Željko Topić
• EPO-Funded Unitary Patent (UPC) Propaganda Events and the Latest on the Undemocratic (Even Antidemocratic) UPC Push
• Federation of International Civil Servants’ Associations Bemoans EPO Climate of “Fear, Threats, Intimidation or Retaliation”
• More Information About Battistelli's Utterly Miserable Last EPO Moves (Leaked Photo Included) (Spanish translation)
• Request of Transcription and Translation: FICSA Letter Against EPO, French Media on EPO Abuses
• New Leak: Battistelli’s Circle, Now Fighting for Survival, Circulates a Letter (and Why Some at the EPO Believe It’s a Form of Blackmail)
• Leaked: Board 28 Message to Heads of Delegation of the Administrative Council (EPO)
• The European Patent Office’s Head of Recruitment and Talent Management Quits, More People Reportedly Exit Quietly
• “Bavarian Government is Unable to Become Involved in the Business Operations of Supra-national Organizations” Like EPO
• More Political Action in France, Still Firmly Against the Largely French EPO Management
• New EPO Rumours About Benoît Battistelli's Potential Role in the Bygmalion Affair
• Germany, Which Allows People in Europe and Abroad to Patent Software (EPC Shunned), Simply Cannot be Trusted With the EPO and UPC
• Call for Information: Separating EPO Rumours From Confirmed Facts
• Patent Trolls and the Rise of Non-Practicing Parasites Not Just in the US But Also in Europe (Spanish translation)
• A Preview of Injunctions/Raids Heaven in Europe With the Unitary Patent (Continent-Wide Bans and Embargoes by Patent Lawyers)
• Source: EPO’s Administrative Council Not Pursuing Battistelli’s Witch-hunt Against a Judge Anymore
• Rumours Suggest That Battistelli, Already Enjoying Life With a Huge (But Still Secret) Salary, Wants More Than a Decade’s Worth of Salary to Leave
• EPO Management Reportedly in a State of Collapse, Rumours Suggest Battistelli Possibly Out Soon, Events Canceled
• Open Letter Explains Why Disciplinary Committees at the EPO Have Become a Sham Under Battistelli's Regime
• Team Battistelli Tries to Bend the Rules to Prevent the European Patent Office From Going on Strike
• The EPO's Patent Coup in Europe Moves on With Conflict of Interests-Plagued German Authorities for UPC
• Danish Left's Alternate for European Parliament Slams the European Patent Office While Staff Protests Are Again Ignored by the German Media
• Patent Lawyers and EPO Officials Are Parading the Unitary Patent (UPC) in, Despite Lack of Democratic Process (Spanish translation)
• How the European Patent Office (EPO) is Crushing Staff Unions and Why EPO Staff Has a Moral Duty to Protest
• The European Patent Office (EPO) Openly Advocates Software Patents Despite the Rules (Spanish translation)
• Transcript of EPO Official Admitting on Television (Nieuwsuur Interview) That Courts Are of No Interest to Him
• Caricature of the Day: Willy Minnoye (EPO) Above the Law
• A New MUST-READ Article From Croatia About EPO Vice-President Željko Topić, Condemning His Behaviour Even Inside the EPO
• EPO VP1 Willy Minnoye and His Bizarre Claims About Systematic Crackdown on the EPO Unions (More Than Half a Dozen People Targeted is Clearly Not a Coincidence)
• The Abuses of the EPO’s Management Against Staff Extend to Their Families
• With Software Patents, “the Low Level of the USPTO Has Now Been Reached by the EPO” (Spanish translation)
• The European Patent Office, Aloof/Apathetic to Inventors and Human Rights, Simply Cannot be Trusted With the Unitary Patent (UPC) (Spanish translation)
• Feedback About Battistelli’s ‘Meet the President’ Event in Rijswijk (4th of February, 2016)
• In Lawyerland, Simulated UPC 'Trials' and More Extraordinary EPO Propaganda for Change That Would Harm Europe to Help Patent Lawyers and Their Big Clients
• New EPO Protests Amid Nervous Breakdowns of Spanish EPO Employee (After Institutional Bullying by Battistelli's Goons), Spain Rejects the Unitary Patent (UPC) (Spanish translation)
• Only Half a Dozen Cuban Patents Filed at EPO, But Hugely Unpopular Battistelli Goes to Cuba to Garner Cheap Support (Spanish translation)
• EPO Brain Drain (Even Directors Fed Up With Team Battistelli) and Rumours About Battistelli Becoming President of the UPC
• More Than 20 Years in the Line: European Patent Office and Claims of European Convention on Human Rights Infringement Against Applicants/Stakeholders
• UPC Nepotism, Political Abuses, and UPC Involvement From the Legal Firm That EPO Hired to Bully Techrights (Spanish translation)
• Member of European Parliament Brings Up “Ongoing Violations of the Fundamental and Employment Rights of the Staff of EPO” (Spanish translation)
• Besieged Benoît Battistelli Mimics 'Damage Control' Tactics of FIFA or Blatter as More Judges Start Getting Involved in EPO Scandals
• Several Political Parties Directly Challenge the European Patent Office for Ignoring the Law, Not Obeying Court Orders
• Even the Legal Community is Upset at Benoît Battistelli for the Damage He Did to the EPO
• EPO Union (SUEPO) Getting Busted: “More and More People are Joining the Union, but Fewer and Fewer People Dare to Take on Leading Positions There.”
• The EPO's Benoît Battistelli is the Dictator Who Can No Longer Dictate Like He Used to
• The European Patent Office “is Acting as Though the Law Does Not Apply to It.”
• Latest Propaganda From the EPO's Management an Effort to Make the EPO the Tool of Megacorporations (Spanish translation)
• 'Aversion to Change' Propaganda From the EPO Echoes or Parrots Lenin and Stalin
• The Alice Case Continues to Smash Software Patents (This Time OpenTV’s); Will the EPO Ever Pay Attention?
• EPO Staff Responds to Team Battistelli's Expansion to Include French Economic Propagandist on the Payroll
• UPC: To Understand Who Would Benefit From It Just Look at Who's Promoting It (Like TPP)
• The ‘Offenses’ of EPO Staff Representatives Boil Down to Truth-Telling
• Rumours About Dismissal of Benoît Battistelli and New Letter From Union Syndicale Federale Blasting Battistelli’s Behaviour
• Readers' Article: A Strange Conspiracy of Silence in the German Media (Part II)
• European Patent Office Pretends It's Business as Usual and Prepares New Vanity Pieces (Spanish translation)
• Readers’ Article: A Strange Conspiracy of Silence in the German Media (Part I)
• Benoît Battistelli’s EPO: From Show Trials and Mock Trials to a Self-Aggrandising Propaganda Event Later Today in Rijswijk
• Caricature of the Day: EPO President
• Company Known as European Patent Office Provides Tips on How to Patent Software in Europe
• The Most Detailed Explanation (Yet) of What's Wrong With the EPO (Spanish translation)
• SUEPO (EPO Staff Union) Appears to Have Launched a New and Improved Web Site After Attempts to Crush (‘Decapitate’) SUEPO
• Münchner Merkur Explains That EPO Staff is Defecting to SUEPO, Even The Council Distrusts Battistelli Now
• Slides of New Talk Which Explains the Connection Between the Unitary Patent (UPC) and Software Patents (Spanish translation)
• Under Battistelli’s Regime the European Patent Office is Rapidly Rotting

January

• MEP Konstantina Kouneva (Former Trade Unionist) Again Takes Action Against the European Patent Office for Union-Busting Actions
• Political Complaints About European Patent Office Abuses Keep Flooding in After Firing of Staff Representatives (Busting of Unions)
• Richard Stallman: European Software Patents Are Back With the Unitary Patent Court (UPC) (Spanish translation)
• When European Parliament/Commission Gets Embroiled in the EPO Scandals
• When European SMEs Make the Mistake of Relying on the EPO’s Integrity, Now Want to Even SUE the EPO
• Translation: What If the European Patent Office Were to Torture?
• 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? (Spanish translation)
• 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'
• Not Just Three (or Even Six) EPO Staff Representatives Under Attack (Spanish translation)
• A Busy Week Ahead for the EPO's Management as Union-busting Efforts Culminate (Spanish translation)
• The European Patent Office (EPO) Doesn’t Like Spanish, So Why Should the Spanish Tolerate the EPO? (Spanish translation)
• Patent Lawyers Say It “Remains to be Seen How the EPO Will Limit the Number of PACE Requests an Applicant Can Make” (Spanish translation)
• Patent Lawyers and People in 'IP' Jobs Warp the Debate About the Patent System: EPO-Funded Writers, Glorification of Patent Trolls, and Software Patents
• So Much for ‘Vocal Minority’… Half of EPO Staff Signed Petition in Support of SUEPO
• The European Patent Office (EPO) Has Become a Propaganda Mill After the FTI Consulting Deal
• Shedding Light on the Secretive Mock Trial of Elizabeth Hardon and Others (EPO Union Busting)
• The Long EPO Queue for European SMEs That Cannot Hop Like Multinational Corporations (Spanish translation)
• What the European Patent Office (EPO) Looks Like to European SMEs (Spanish translation)
• British MEP May Soon Complain to Benoît Battistelli About EPO Process, No Closer Contacts With Ordinary Applicants (Spanish translation)
• German and European Patent Attorney Warns That UPC Would Bring More Patent Trolls to Europe, With Help From the EPO (Spanish translation)
• Meeting the EPO’s PR Team and Learning Its Dirty Tricks
• European Patent Office (EPO) Starts New Year With Hogwash (Spanish translation)

2015

December

• EPO Coverage to Increase in 2016, Including UPC Reality Checks
• EPO a “European Institution Which Does Not Fall Under EU Law”
• Buying Panels and Paying the Media to Cement Personal Agenda: The Bill Gates Common Core Case Mirrors the Battistelli Unitary Patent Case
• Insensitivity at the EPO’s Management – Part IV: Criticism Regarding Patent Scope is Verboten
• Revolving Doors of High-Level EPO Management: Jacques Michel and the Questel Deal With the EPO
• Battistelli’s Proposed Changes to Pensions “Difficult to Understand”, “Liable to Cause Instability”, Without Consultation or Justification
• EPO Whistleblowing: How (Not) to Use Machines at the Office
• Summary of the EPO-Europatis Series
• Loose Data 'Protection' and Likely Privacy Infringements at the EPO: Here's Who Gets Employees' Internal Data
• Europatis: “Turnover of €211,800 and Zero Employees”
• Insensitivity at the EPO’s Management – Part III: Death in the Family
• Benoît Battistelli Fails to Get Majority of 38 Member States to Crush the Boards, Which Are Already Being Crushed Anyway (23 Vacant Judge Positions)
• Insensitivity at the EPO’s Management – Part II: Patent Office as a Cancer
• Insensitivity at the EPO’s Management – Part I: An Introduction
• Concerns About the Unitary Patent Court (UPC) Among EPO Staff an Outcome of Battistelli’s Attacks on Staff
• I-AM EPO: How the Record of the EPO's Management Dispute With Staff and the EPC is Being Rewritten by EPO-Funded Media
• Managing IP Interview With Battistelli Shows That He's Either Deluded or Dishonest About EPO Realities
• EPO Administrative Council: the Situation is “Detrimental to the Proper Functioning of the Office and the Public Image of the Whole Organisation”
• Europe Under Siege by Patent Lawyers, UPC Ambitions, and the Administrative Council’s Continued Passive Support of Battistelli
• Translation of the Latest Communiqué About the Administrative Council, No Longer Published by ‘President’
• EPO Level of Trust Reaches All-Time Low: Workers Distrust the Available Phones in Their Offices, Use Mobiles Instead
• The Forgotten History of IAM 'Magazine' as EPO Management's Megaphone and EPO Union Basher
• Upcoming Series: The EPO as ‘Public’ Service for Private Profits
• Battistelli’s Furious Love Affair With French Power: Part V
• An Atmosphere of Revolt Inside the European Patent Office
• More Sunday Humour: Fictional Diary From the European Patent Office
• Battistelli's Furious Love Affair With French Power: Part IV
• EPO Management Discovers Media is Against It
• Watch Out for ‘Divide and Rule’ Tactics From the Control Risks- and FTI Consulting-Steered EPO
• Jacques Michel (Former EPO VP1), Benoît Battistelli’s EPO, and the Leak of Internal Staff Data to Michel’s Private Venture
• Rumour: Administrative Council Advises Benoît Battistelli Not to Fire Staff Representatives
• EPO Pays FTI Consulting (Nearly a Million Bucks), Which Pays IAM for Pro-UPC Propaganda Event
• EPI Silently Removes Criticism of the European Patent Office/Organisation, Techrights Preserves It
• EPO Irrelevancy, Two Decades to be Granted an EPO Patent, Outrage Over Patents on Plants in EPO
• Benoît Battistelli: “An Earthquake Would be Needed for the Administrative Council... Not to Support My Major Proposals.”
• Battistelli's Furious Love Affair With French Power: Part III
• EPO Union Responds to Željko Topić and Raimund Lutz's Attempt to Intimidate Staff That Joins Unions
• Ahead of Administrative Council Meeting, General Consultative Committee Warned of “Witch Hunt in Pursuit of SUEPO Officials” (Union Busting)
• Administrative Council Does Not Crush the Boards But Does Crush the Unions (Suspension Duration Sextupled)
• EPO Attacks Staff Representatives’ Right to Work Just One Week Before Christmas
• Members of the European Parliament Slam the EPO for Patent Maximalism That Led to Granting of Patents on Plants
• Benoît Battistelli's EPO Continues Its Self-Congratulatory PR Charade, Neglecting to Even Acknowledge the Catastrophes Therein
• Battistelli Wants to Make “Lobbying in the Field of European and Unitary Patent” a “Prohibited Activity” for All Except Himself
• European Patent Institute (EPI) Not Happy With the EPO’s Terrible Treatment of the Boards of Appeal
• AIPPI Sends Angry Letter to the Administrative Council Regarding the EPO's Attacks on the Boards and Staff Unions, Saying it Damages the EPO's Function and Reputation)
• New WIPO Figures Reinforce Reality Where More Patents Needn't Imply More Innovation, Just Lower Standards (a discussion about the EPO and UPC included)
• Unanimous Negative Opinion on the Proposal of Benoît Battistelli to Eliminate Basic Rights at EPO
• Battistelli's Furious Love Affair With French Power: Part II
• UPC and Patent Trolls: The Connection Revisited
• Very High Proportion of EPO Staff in Berlin Goes to the Streets to Protest and to Defend SUEPO From the Union Busters
• Ahead of Tomorrow's Administrative Council Meeting EPO Staff Representatives Warn Heads of Delegations About Union Busting and Other Abuses
• Battistelli's Vision of UPC is Closer Contract With Major Applicants (Abroad), Contrary to European Interests
• When Europe's Leading International Patent Litigators Get Fed Up With Benoît Battistelli and Want Him Sent to 'Exile'
• Watch Out For the EPO-SUEPO Parity Spin
• Heise Article Tackles EPO ‘Feud’ (Union Busting in Disguise), Techrights’ Remarks Follow
• Battistelli’s Furious Love Affair With French Power: Part I
• EPO No Longer in the ‘Business’ of Just Granting Patents But Politics and Lobbying Also
• Keeping the European Patent Office (EPO) Out of Politics Amid the EPO's Campaign to Deceive the Media, Politicians
• When SUEPO Called the EPO a “Public Service Organisation Out of Control”
• The EPO’s Failed (Dismissed) Attempt to Dismiss a Judge Alleged to Have Communicated About EPO Abuses
• The European Patent Office is a Lobby Organisation, Was and Still is Lobbying for Expansion of Patent Scope (Also to Software) Through UPC
• EPO Censored Itself After Publishing a Document Which Had Been Leaked Anyway
• EPO Central Staff Committee Warns That EPO President Illegally Changes the Rules to Remove the Rights of the Accused, Crush Dissent/Unions
• A Day After Massive EPO Protest Benoît Battistelli Tries Using Money to Appease Staff
• EPO 'Sweetener' for Administrative Council National Delegates
• New Private Eye Article Says EPO “Doesn't Actually Deny That There's a Fast-Track Project Allowing Big Firms to Queue-Jump”
• Series Teaser: EPO President Battistelli's Relationship With Power
• EPO Scandals in Private Eye Again
• Photos From EPO Protest in Munich
• A Little Taste of European Patent Office 'Justice'
• The EPO’s Double Standard on Confidentiality
• Contacting National Delegations to Complain About the European Patent Office (EPO)
• EPO Vice-President Željko Topić Formally Weakens the Right to Strike, Threatens Financial Retaliation
• Surveillance Audits at the EPO
• Tightening Media Control: European Patent Office (EPO) Silences Blogs of Critics by Intimidation, Lawsuits
• Union Busting at the European Patent Office, Dressed Up as 'Investigation'
• An Introduction and an Overview of European Patent Office (EPO) Scandals
• Software Patents and EPO Coverage
• Watch Out for the Latest EPO Charm Offensive in the Media, Greenwashing Being the Theme Du Jour
• EPO 'Investigators' Are Almost Technically Illiterate, Definitely Biased by Design
• Chairman of the Administrative Council Failed to Stop Suspension (and Potential Firing) of EPO Staff Representatives
• EPO's Team Battistelli is Promoting Only the Oppressors
• Legal Analysis Reveals That EPO Principal Director for Human Resources (Bergot) Resorts to “Gross Violation of Due Process”
• Hypocrite in Chief: Benoît Battistelli Compares Staff Union to ‘Mafia’
• Lawyers’ Response to Incredible Accusations From EPO Management and Its Praetorian Guard
• EPO Management: Associating a Whistleblowing Judge With Nazism and Weapons, Associating Staff Representatives With Snipers!
• Team Battistelli Plans to Send to Exile (or Effectively Fire) Law-abiding Staff Because the Staff is Independent and Unwilling to Sack a Whistleblower
• FRAND Tax, Patent Trolls as Satellites of Large Patent Aggressors, EPO Puff Pieces, and Another Imminent EPO Protest
• The EPO is Trying to Make It a Serious Offense to Merely Inform Colleagues About Oneself (or Others) Being Subjected to Institutional Harassment/Witch-hunt by Team Battistelli
• Did the EPO Spike a BBC Story Regarding Discriminatory Practices, Legal Bullying of Bloggers, and/or Microsoft Bias?
• Outside Interventions Sought in EPO Amid Scandals, New Intervention Comes From OHIM
• New WIPR Survey Shows 96% of Respondents Are Concerned About the Situation at the European Patent Office (EPO)
• Staff Union of the EPO Responds to Benoît Battistelli’s Alleged Defamation of Staff Representatives
• Article Highlights EPO’s Capitalist Venture Tendencies, Seeking to Just Maximize Profit, Irrespective of Public Interests and Human Factors
• EPO “Synonymous With Psychological Depressions, Nervous Breakdowns, and Even Suicides”
• The EPO's PR Agency is Connected to Fracking AstroTurf in the United States
• No Wonder Staff of the EPO Gets Sick of the Management, Which Games Sickness Statistics in Order to Delude the World
• The Tail That Wags the Dog: How an EPO President Virtually Controls the Administrative Council (AC)
• Suppression of Voices Critical of the European Patent Office (EPO)
• The USPTO, With All Its Serious Issues, Increasingly Looks Like the EPO’s Role Model
• More Than 2,000 People, Including Directors, Said to Have Protested in Munich (About HALF of All EPO Staff Including The Hague Protest)
• Like JPMorgan, EPO Management Has Started a Defamatory Smear Campaign Against Critics
• European Private Office (EPO) Increasingly the Subject of Media Scrutiny Despite Huge Spendings on Reputation Laundering
• EPO All-Time Low: Memorandum From the Praesidium (of the Boards of Appeal) Complains to the Administrative Council About Latest Questionable Moves
• EPO Does Not Seem to Have Investigators, Only Accusers and Prosecutors (Loyal to the President)
• The Media is Already Flooded With EPO Propaganda, Some Likely Paid for With €73,000-Per-Month 'Special' New Budget
• EurActiv's Puff Piece for EPO (Amid High-Budget Media Blitz) Reveals Just How Clueless and Tactless the EPO's President Really is
• Amid EPO Exodus/Brain Drain, Two Options: 'Gestapo' Staff and Assistant to Battistelli Have Quit or Battistelli's Praetorian Guard is Expanding
• Impact of Software Patents and Excessive/Unregulated Profit Motives at USPTO: Now Even Common Encryption (i.e. Computer Security) Under Patent Attacks (a large portion speaks about patent scope at the EPO and privatisation, nepotism etc.)
• French Member of Parliament Reacts to EPO Management Amidst Ongoing Attacks on Staff Representatives and Facts-free Information War
• EPO Staff Protest Statistics: Over 2,600 Signatures (So Far) in Petition, About 800 Staff in The Hague Protest, Much More to Come in Munich
• EPO “Intranet Fails to Present Any Negative Press Cuttings, Reports and Reactions From the Media”
• The Spanish EPO Scandal – Part III
• New EPO Job Advertisement Reveals Gestapo-Like ‘Deep State’, Operating Outside the Rule of Law and Managed Secretly by a Tyrannical President
• Punto Informatico (Italian Media) About EPO's Legal Bullying Against Techrights
• The European Patent Office (EPO) Crushes Not Only Unions But Also the Press and Even Bloggers
• The Spanish EPO Scandal – Part II
• EPO Staff Representatives Highlight to Pierre-Yves Le Borgn’ How Battistelli Deceived Him

November

• Željko Topić Tries to Do to EPO Staff What He Did in Croatia, Now Crushes Staff Assembly in The Hague
• The Spanish EPO Scandal – Part I
• Media Alert: IAM ‘Magazine’ Does Not Protect Sources
• Public Protests by European Patent Office (EPO) Staff Weaken the EPO's Attacks on the Media
• Why the European Patent Office Cannot Really Sue and Why It's All -- More Likely Than Not -- Just SLAPP
• How the EPO Twisted Defamation Law in a Failed Bid to Silence Techrights
• The Latest EPO Spin: Staff Protesters Compared to ‘Anti-Patent Campaigners’ or ‘Against UPC’
• The Serious Implication of Controversial FTI Consulting Contract: Every Press Article About EPO Could Have Been Paid for by EPO
• EPO: We Have Always Been at War With Europe (or Europeans)
• What Everyone Needs to Know About the EPO's New War on Journalism
• EPO Did Not Want to Take Down One Techrights Article, It Wanted to Take Down Many Articles Using Intimidation, SLAPPing, and Psychological Manipulation Late on a Friday Night
• The European Private Office: What Was Once a Public Service is Now Crony Capitalism With Private Contractors
• When the EPO Liaised With Capone (Literally) to Silence Bloggers, Delete Articles
• Blogger Who Wrote About the EPO's Abuses Retires
• Leaked: EPO Award of €880,000 “in Order to Address the Media Presence of the EPO” (Reputation Laundering)
• Documents Needed: Contract or Information About EPO PR/Media Campaign to Mislead the World
• Guest Post: The EPO, EPC, Unitary Patent and the Money Issue]
• Saving the Integrity of the European Patent Office (EPO)
• A Call for Bloggers and Journalists: Did EPO Intimidate and Threaten You Too? Please Speak Out.
• European Patent Office (EPO) a “Kingdom Above the EU Countries, a Tyranny With ZERO Accountability”
• EPO Management Needs to Finally Recognise That It Itself is the Issue, Not the Staff or the Unions
• Even the EPO Central Staff Committee is Unhappy With EPO Management
• Debunking the EPO’s Latest Marketing Nonsense From Les Échos and More on Benoît Battistelli’s Nastygram to French Politician
• The Sun King Delusion: The Views of Techrights Are Just a Mirror of EPO Staff Unions
• United They Stand: FFPE-EPO Supports Suspended Staff Representatives From SUEPO
• Censoring WIPR Article About Censorship by EPO
• Censorship at the EPO Escalates: Now We Have Threats to Sue Publishers
• Response to Bogus Accusations That EPO Staff Protests Are Really an Attempt to Derail UPC
• New Heise Article Makes It Clear That 'Nazi'-Themed Accusations Against the Suspended Board Judge Were Insufficiently Substantiated
• European Central Bank Staff Committee Adds to Growing Pressure on Abusive EPO Management
• Gross Violation of Workers’ Rights in EPO: Denial of Christmas Vacation/Leave for Slower Workers
• The Bogus Narrative Floated by EPO Management: Our Judges and Examiners Are Armed and Violent
• Support SUEPO or End Up Like They and Some of the Boards Did
• NRC Handelsblad (Dutch Evening Newspaper) Speaks About EPO's Refusal to Accept Court Orders From The Hague
• EPO President Battistelli Now Intimidates Even National Delegations
• A Look at the Latest Gross Deletionism at the EPO’s ‘Media Partner’, French Newspaper Les Échos
• Rumour About Efforts to Dismiss a Board Judge by Intimidating Boards of Appeal
• President Battistelli Now Pressures/Threatens Politicians Who ‘Dare’ to Complain About Abuses and Unacceptable Conditions at the EPO
• EPO: It’s Like a Family Business – Part IV
• Translation of Thomas Magenheim-Hörmann's Article in the German Media, Urging European Politicians to Intervene in EPO Chaos and Lawlessness
• German Press Says Broken EPO Lets President Severely Punish Staff Not Even Guilty of Any Wrongdoing
• German Media Reveals That Out-of-Control EPO Management is Even Threatening and Abusing Lawyers Now
• It Pays (Off) to ‘Bribe’ the Media: Watch How Les Échos Covers EPO Matters and Self-Censors
• ‘Leaked’ PDF Shows How EPO Management Tried to Crush Judge Who ‘Dared’ to Criticise EPO Management
• EPO: It’s Like a Family Business – Part III
• In an Effort to Counter EPO Staff Narrative (After ~2,000 of Staff Protest) EPO Management Portrays Staff as Violent But Provides No Evidence
• Gross Aggression by EPO Management Shows the Urgent Need to Remove Immunity From EPO
• Patent Lawyers Want to Bring Software Patents (Hence Patent Trolls Too) to Europe, Piggyback Battistelli's Habitual UPC Promotion
• Another George Bush Moment: Benoît Battistelli Says EPO Believes in “Fundamental Principles of Freedom, Equality and Justice”
• Meltdown at the EPO, Massive Staff Protests This Afternoon
• The EPO's Management Has Just Reaffirmed Its Possible Role in Contributing to Staff Suicides
• EPO: It's Like a Family Business - Part II
• EPO: It’s Like a Family Business – Part I
• The EPO is Criticised Again for Serving the Monsanto (and Syngenta) Agenda
• The Bureaucratic Nonsense That Came Out of Benoît Battistelli and Jesper Kongstad at EPOPIC
• New Reports Highlight Need to Crack Down on the European Patent Office and Microsoft
• European Federation of Public Service Unions Pressures Dutch Prime Minister to Take Action Against the EPO's Violations
• The EPO’s Investigative Unit Exposed: Part VII
• The EPO’s Investigative Unit Exposed: Part VI
• The EPO’s Investigative Unit Exposed: Part V
• The EPO’s Investigative Unit Exposed: Part IV
• IP Kat Bemoans Crushing of the EPO’s Boards by an Increasingly Paranoid EPO Management
• The EPO’s Investigative Unit Exposed: Part III
• Dutch Political Action Against the EPO’s Management Greater Than Previously Estimated
• The EPO’s Investigative Unit Exposed: Part II
• The Latest Propaganda From Benoît Battistelli is Promotion of the Unitary Patent (UPC) at Political Levels
• A State Within a State: Süddeutsche Zeitung Article About the EPO's Bizarre Existence Above the Law
• The EPO’s Investigative Unit Exposed: Part I
• More European Politicians Take on the EPO for Ignoring the Rule of Law
• The Benoît Battistelli Way or the Highway: EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal is Being Discredited, SUEPO Web Site is Down Again
• EPO “Careering Towards the Precipice of Disaster”

October

• Private Eye Covers the EPO Scandals, Says EPO Hired 'British Snooping Firm Global Risk Consultants'
• Former German Constitutional Court Judge Denounces the EPO’s Possible Campaign of Defamation Against Judge Accused of Truth-Telling
• Benoît Battistelli Became an Embarrassment to the European Patent Organisation, Allege EPO Workers
• The International Labour Organisation Highlights Problems of Broader Dimensions at EPO
• EPO Press Spokesperson and Obvious Conflicts of Interest With Supposed Anti-Corruption Group Transparency International
• Battistelli's EPO Loses 'Customers' Because It Plays 'Favourites' With Large Corporations
• Secret Deals at the EPO Discredit Europe and Need to Stop Immediately
• Control Risks Group (CRG), Transparency International, the European Patent Office (EPO) Investigative Unit and the Obvious Conflicts of Interest
• In the United States, USPTO Helps Create Trolls, Whereas in Europe, the EPO Itself is the Troll
• Board of Appeal Thwarts a Software Patent Application in the EPO, From Company Indirectly Connected to the EPO
• European Patent Organisation: Hallmark of a Corrupted (by Corporations) Entity
• The Deteriorating Working Conditions at the EPO Show Reluctance to Make Talented Staff (or Ill Staff) Happy
• EPO Slammed for Granting Patents on Life
• How the Chief Information Officer of the EPO is Connected to the President of the EPO
• SUEPO Reiterates Call for Independent Mediation and “Doubts That There Can Ever be Social Peace With Mr Battistelli as President”
• US Patent 'Industry' (Parasites) Defends Patently Broken System That It Profits From, Pushes for UPC in Europe
• Techrights to Increase Coverage of EPO Scandals and the Unitary Patent
• Slate Magazine Explains Why Excessive Patenting is a Bad Thing, Gives a Cautionary Tale for EPO and Others
• EPO Increases Repressions: Allegedly Bans Staff From Helping Refugees
• German Broadcaster on European Patent Office (EPO) Preferential Treatment for Microsoft and Others
• Benoît Battistelli et al in an Allegedly New Campaign of Defamation Against Staff Member
• German Media Shows Discriminatory EPO Practices More Than Just a ‘Pilot’ (Reaching Second Half of 2016), Started When Microsoft Pressured EPO (Lodged Complaints)
• EPO Cleverly Frames Total War Against Its Own Staff as a War Against Nazism
• EPO is Trademark-Bullying Its Critics, Trying Repeatedly to Remove Bad Publicity With Help From Menacing Legal Threats (SLAPP)
• The 'Sherlocks' of EPO/Spin-Doctoring Pretend That All of the EPO's Problems Boil Down to One Disgruntled Person
• EPO’s Jeremy Philpott Confirms That Discriminatory (Software) Patent Processing Practices Started With Microsoft, Because of Microsoft
• Translation Needed: High Employee Sabotaged European Patent Office (EPO)
• EPO Says Crushing Patent Neutrality is a Good Thing® Because Authenticity of Self-Incriminating EPO Document Cannot be Denied
• EPO Completely Loses It and Starts Banning Even More Sites Ahead of Today's Demonstration, UPC Proceeding Behind Closed Doors
• Staff of the EPO Under Siege Ahead of Tomorrow's Demonstration in Munich
• EPO Management Lobbies for the Unitary Patent (UPC) and Uses This to Advance Software Patents in Europe
• Confirmed: Benoît Battistelli is Crushing the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA)
• EPO Staff is Happy, Says EPO Propaganda Still in the Making
• EPO Management is Running Out of Time as More Media Remarks on Its Abuses
• Benoît Battistelli's Group of 'Loyals' Crushes Not Only the Independent Boards But Also 'Unwanted' Directorates-General
• Leaked: EPO Prioritises Work for Large Foreign Corporations, Discrimination Not Accidental But Centrally Planned
• Benoît Battistelli's Office Accused of Institutional Harassment Against EPO Staff in New Letter to the Administrative Council, Calling for External Investigation
• Bad News for the EPO's Judicial Independence and Due Process in Next Week's Administrative Council (AC) Meeting
• The Coup D'état of Benoît Battistelli Follows an Imperialist Model, Threatens Opposition and Dissent
• EPO Staff to Disrupt Administrative Council Meeting With Public Demonstration That Raises Awareness of Abuses
• Željko Topić Attacks EPO Staff for ‘Daring’ to Legally Challenge the EPO’s Management Over Its Gross Abuses in Europe
• Commenters Provide Possible Explanations for Mr Van der Eijk Being on Unlimited Sick Leave
• With Software Patents in Europe (and Pushes for the Same Thing in Australia and India) Patent Trolls Now Come to Europe, Attack Android/Linux
• New Information on Limbo in the Enlarged Board, Courtesy of Illegal Actions by the EPO’s Benoît Battistelli
• Dr. Ingve Björn Stjerna Explains Why the UPC (“Unitary Patent“ System) is an Undemocratic Sham Whilst UPC Silently Advanced by Patent Lawyers and Politicians
• Article Explains Why SUEPO Went Silent Well Over a Week Ago: Nobody is Allowed to Talk to Journalists Without Permission From Battistelli
• Chairman of the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA) and EPO Vice-President of DG3 Suspiciously on Unlimited Sick Leave After Benoît Battistelli's Unprecedented Attacks on Other EBoA Staff
• Microsoft's Secret Special Relationship With EPO Illustrates Serious Corruption at Microsoft and the EPO

September

• Süddeutsche Zeitung Explains Imminent Federal Scrutiny Against Battistelli’s EPO in Germany
• EPO Managers, Patent Lawyers, Commissioners and Other Non-Technical Personnel Tackle Democracy, Alter Laws in Bulk and in Secret
• Europe’s Acceptance of and Resistance to Software Patents, Courtesy of Corporate Front Groups and Courtrooms Respectively
• German Press Explains EPO Investigation Unit (I.U.), Struggles to Openly Speak to the Secretive EPO
• Translation Needed of Article About EPO Threats Against SUEPO’s Elizabeth Hardon
• EPO Management Justifies Censorship (Even of Journalists) Using Its Vice-President Željko Topić
• EPO President Benoît Battistelli Compared to Famous Criminals on European Television
• Dutch Politician John Kerstens Says EPO Investigative Unit is Called ‘the Gestapo’
• The European Patent Office's Autocracy Has Proven the Streisand Effect, Amplifying Its Opposition's Messages
• Dutch Report: EPO Suicides Possibly Caused by Working Conditions Imposed by EPO’s Management
• European Patent Office Expands Censorship and Intimidation Against Staff as Pressure Mounts
• EPO Staff Suicides Estimated to Have Grown Tenfold Under Current Regime -- Claim
• EPO Has Become Political and Benoît Battistelli is Lobbying for UPC (Large Corporations' Wishlist)
• The EPO’s Vicious Attacks on Its Very Own Staff Have Peaked (War on Dissent) While Oppressive Patent Regime (UPC) Phased in
• Benoît Battistelli and His Goons From Control Risks (CRG) Try to Crush Unions, Not Just Journalism
• EPO Management May Not Have Resigned (Yet), But the Rest of the Staff is Leaving in Droves
• Benoît Battistelli in Denial Over Suicides in EPO, Accuses and Threatens the Messengers

August

• Censorship, Self-Censorship and Intimidation Now the Modus Operandi at EPO
• Patent Practitioners: "The Unitary Patent Might be Able to Open the Floodgates for Software Patents in Europe"
• [http://techrights.org/2015/08/27/epo-sui