05.26.16
EPO Management Under Growing Stress From Croatian Law Enforcement Authorities, German Politicians, Italian Media
It’s not looking promising for people at the top, especially the ringleader and his right-hand man
Summary: Things are not as rosy as the relative calm may suggest, and in the coming weeks we expect some major events other than the protest at all EPO sites across Europe
THINGS are heating up at the EPO. It’s not just about that (updated twice) bicycle tale but also potential trouble with the police. Sources tell us that we are about to find out a lot more from Zagreb, where the Vice-President of the EPO faces criminal charges. As one source of us put it today, “at this moment I have only a few verbal [bits of information], but very strong information from different sources.” It’s about the cases against the Vice-President of the EPO, who has been busy making a mountain out of a molehill regarding a bicycle, allegedly in order to help justify almost a million dollars spent on Battistelli's truly spurious bodyguards (the bicycle tale curiously enough coincided with the budget meeting). The updates and comments in our original coverage of this reveal some more details. Speaking of criminality, watch this Danish article about Jesper Kongstad, Chairman of the Administrative Council. The title says “senior executive in the state scammed for millions of ‘Nigerian fraud’: Therefore we were cheated” and to give the gist of it, consider this automated translation: “The employee got an email from a person who claimed to be the agency’s director, Jesper Kongstad, and therein was there that the director wanted a bank transfer of 6.7 million to a Chinese bank for the purchase of shares in a Chinese company – all in confidence, said in the message.”
“It’s about the cases against the Vice-President of the EPO, who has been busy making a mountain out of a molehill regarding a bicycle, allegedly in order to help justify almost a million dollars spent on Battistelli’s truly spurious bodyguards (the bicycle tale curiously enough coincided with the budget meeting).”Surely this is bad publicity not just for Kongstad but also for the EPO. How could these people be so easily fooled? It doesn’t bode well for their intelligence, does it?
3 sources told us, both privately and publicly, about Italian TV coverage of the EPO. It wasn’t too flattering and there may be more on the way (follow-up reports). “Now,” told us one reader, “it might be that the authors might want to get a closer more specific look on EPO, if more strange things reach them. So I keep posting to them (who knows, maybe that also set them on the tracks in the first place) and they might well focus some follow-up on EPO. Surely there is no lack of issues.
“The program now is still available on streaming, precisely the part concerning patents, cut out from the rest of the show and there is also a complete transcript in Italian in PDF.”
“Signing a work contract with the EPO is signing a terrible, irrevocable deal which can leave one depressed, unemployed for years (at presidential veto/decree), robbed (legal fees, pension, etc.) and in some cases dead.”Contact details are on the site in case somebody else wishes to send them information for follow-up investigations.
It has been nearly 3 months since Bavarian television covered EPO abuses, asked us to remove copies of the relevant segment, and then the Bavarian Parliament got involved. This isn’t over yet and it seems to have been initiated by the televised coverage, based on the timing. SUEPO has just stated that a Bavarian Parliament session on the subject will take place again next week. To quote: “On 20 April earlier this year the Committee of European and international affairs of the Bavarian Parliament discussed an urgent request from Ms Gabi Schmidt, speaker of the party “Freie Wähler”, concerning the working conditions at the EPO. A short report of the meeting can be found here. The discussion will continue in a plenum session of the Bavarian Parliament in the afternoon of 1 June.”
German patent lawyers are meanwhile trying to rush up the UPC, as does the EPO (advocacy for UPC again or just “unitary effect”?). Based on this new tweet, brain drain at the EPO truly is a problem; there are openings, but people with the required skills would not want to work for the EPO (those who know better).
EPO asks: “Who can apply to be a patent examiner at the EPO?”
Well, who would want to apply to be a patent examiner at the EPO given all that is known nowadays? Signing a work contract with the EPO is signing a terrible, irrevocable deal which can leave one depressed, unemployed for years (at presidential veto/decree), robbed (legal fees, pension, etc.) and in some cases dead. █
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