12.14.16
Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:37 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
If it’s not too late already to save the EPO from collapse…
Reference: Hugo Chavez is Scaring Away Talent
Summary: Tyranny and an authoritarian management style at the EPO is taking its toll and the entire workforce is now at risk
THE severe actions from EPO management have made the working place exceptionally unpleasant, even to senior staff. We have never heard of (or from) a satisfied EPO worker and judging by the staff survey that was not sponsored (and controlled) by Battistelli, it’s the fault of Battistelli and his ilk. Things were nowhere as grim shortly after he had taken over. Judging by the number of departures (including early retirements), we can expect a severe loss of skills/experience inside the Office. This can be fatal.
IAM, which never cared about patent quality (it’s an impediment to trolls that sponsor IAM and IAM itself pushes for software patents even in India while covering up the obvious issues at the EPO), describes a similar manpower issue in India right now. The USPTO, which is generally improving right now (after decisions like Alice and Mayo), brags about improved patent quality. Lee, whom Trump reportedly plans to replace, has just spoken about the subject. To quote IP Watch:
Opening a conference on patent quality today, United States Patent and Trademark Office Director Michele Lee highlighted efforts of the administration in improving the quality of patents and addressing backlog of patent applications. Patent backlog is down by one-third since the start of the Obama administration, she said.
We intend to write more about the USPTO separately (later today), but let’s just say that with PTAB, CAFC, Alice and so on there are growing hopes among reformers (less so among the patent microcosm/patent maximalists who lobby Trump already).
At the EPO, patent quality is declining and earlier this week the EPO tried to hide this (probably in preparation for today’s meeting). Battistelli is demolishing the appeal boards (more of less the equivalent of PTAB in the US) and this article by Christian Balcer (Marks & Clerk) has just been reposted again to highlight shortened windows for appeal (one of many ways Battistelli has been using to crush/weaken the boards).
Yesterday the EPO wrote: “We have vacancies for engineers and scientists.”
What they mean to say was that they have experienced brain drain, as the Office is in a crisis due to Benoît Battistelli and his thugs. Those who can, with some exceptions, are leaving. “Join the Praktika Intern programme,” the EPO wrote yesterday, “if you have experience in drafting & prosecuting European patent applications…”
They just want low-cost labour to compete with the senior staff, forcing them into depression, under-capacity, or simply a rushed process of examination that resembles assembly line rather than proper research (e.g. prior art) which their qualifications, such as Masters and Doctorates, enable them to carry out.
The EPO wants to become another SIPO. A million patent applications per year is something they’ll never attain given the high cost associated with EPs and the growing realisation that today’s EPO is a sham.
The following new comment relates to a comment we saw and mentioned the other day in relation to FFPE-EPO:
Administrative council meets in 2 days. An attempt to head off any opposition within the AC as BB shows how fair he is? I’m pretty certain there would also be a divide and rule about this as have all the members of the staff reps been awarded something? The ones I know will not be bought.
Battistelli is accustomed to wasting the EPO’s money just buying the media and potentially buying votes too (a sackable offense). Some people allege that he is trying to pull it off again.
“Will the AC , partners in crime, become tomorrow a group of refined thinkers,” one person wrote yesterday. Here is the full comment:
Will the AC , partners in crime, become tomorrow a group of refined thinkers and doers who deal freely and easily with the Eponians academic reflexes , unhindered by the often overwhelming foreknowledge of those in BB’s close circles?… A group armed with a critical , constantly alert outlook , with antennae and feelers reaching out in all directions, with ears permanently pricked and implausibly intelligent hearts. To look at the EPO differently , dispense with the obvious, communicate more deliberately with the Eponians and place their trust in them. Do they dare to take this leap in the unknown? A Wahlverwandschaft. There is no such thing as coincidence!
As we stated a couple of times earlier today, if the Administrative Council does not take firm action against Battistelli, then it will most definitely be viewed as complicit. There is no excuse left at this stage. The management, to quote EPO staff, is a disaster because “[t]rust in the European patent system has been seriously eroded” and “Mr Battistelli is causing immeasurable damage to the Office; he is now untenable.” █
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:43 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Early photos from the afternoon’s EPO staff protest in Munich
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 7:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
World-leading scientists in support of EPO staff and against EPO management
Summary: The CERN Staff Association is disturbed to see that “the management of EPO has been attacking the representatives of the personnel on a regular basis.”
THE OTHER day we wrote about EPO staff receiving support from CERN, probably Europe’s most highly regarded scientific institution. Even the US public (and the USPTO) probably wish they had something like CERN, but what they have instead is NASA (it remains to be seen what Donald Trump will leave of it other than climate sceptics [sic]). CERN is the best bar none in its domain, the international leader in several areas of physics. The EPO cannot simply dismiss CERN as irrelevant.
Here is a message from CERN, which has reached us not too long before today’s protest:
Dear Colleagues,
On Tuesday, 29 November 2016, the CERN Staff Association published in Echo (their internal newsletter) an article regarding the very troubling situation of the EPO.
Over the past three years, the management of EPO has been attacking the representatives of the personnel on a regular basis. This has resulted in demotions and dismissals of representatives of the personnel. It is essential to inform all of our colleagues in international and European organizations of what is going on at the EPO. You can find the article published in Echo, along with further information on the issue, on the website of SUEPO (Staff Union of the EPO). (https://www.suepo.org)
In order to support our colleagues of SUEPO and to show that what is happening at the EPO is widely known, you may, if you wish, send messages of support and take a stance on this issue by contacting SUEPO directly at: hague@suepo.org and/or munich@suepo.org.
Best regards.
Joel Lahaye
CERN Staff Association
External relations
It has meanwhile emerged that ILO's staff too supports EPO staff and SUEPO’s Web site has just been updated to link to this announcement in English and in French. The text is not the same as in the E-mail we saw, so we reproduce it below:
The ILO Staff Union Committee supports the struggle of the EPO Staff Association to maintain its work under decent conditions and without retaliatory measures. Indeed, for three years, the staff of this organization has been working in a toxic environment where the deterioration of working conditions is well known.
The representation of the staff is constantly repressed in a brutal way (demotion, eviction) which, in fact, prevents any dialogue between the staff and its administration.
We encourage you to read the articles published by our colleagues of the CERN Staff Association (http://cds.cern.ch/journal/CERNBulletin/2016/48/Staff%20Association/2235528?ln=en) and the ECB (European Central Bank) (http://ipso.de/page.php?c=3)
The ILO Staff Union Committee has already communicated its support and solidarity to the staff of the EOB.
This mentions the ECB (European Central Bank), whose staff made a statement that we covered yesterday.
The number of voices against Battistelli’s regime is growing by the day/week and someone sent us “2 further letters in support of EPO staff, one from ILO Staff Union and another from USF.”
What will it take for the Administrative Council to become sober (not drunk on Battistelli’s “carrots”) and realise that this whole institution is now at risk and by failing to act they actually participate (complicity) in institutional corruption? Toasting over the protection of Battistelli somewhere like Kongstad's slaughterhouse* (getting drunk inside this echo chamber) won’t get their own career very far. █
______
* Many people choose to adopt rodents as pets, chinchillas being some of the most desirable among them, but to Kongstad and his wife chinchillas are just piles of bones with fur on them, bred/harvested purely for profit from Danish elites (and sociopaths abroad).
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 6:50 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Reference: Google bomb
Summary: Battistelli’s lobbying in Croatia last week may pay off this week, but we ought to remember the real story behind the EPO in Croatia
NOW that EPO staff is outdoors (protesting against the employer) it is a good time to remind readers of Battistelli’s alleged practice of vote-buying. Whether or not Battistelli is intentionally buying votes is beside the point of the net effect. Quite a few nations, especially tiny nations with almost no patents, are terrified by the financial effect of withdrawing support for Battistelli at the Administrative Council’s meeting (which starts today). One of those nations received an incentive just shortly before another such meeting and yesterday, promoted in the morning over at Twitter (24 hours before the meeting commences), Benoît Battistelli and his thug (Željko Topić) finally posted their photo op from Croatia (warning: epo.org link), confirming what we wrote yesterday about Croatian media’s 'coverup' for Topić (it was a surprise visit of for UPC puff pieces).
“Whether or not Battistelli is intentionally buying votes is beside the point of the net effect.”We don’t suppose Croatia will oppose Battistelli’s proposals today and tomorrow. See the photo with the caption that says “Željko Topić, EPO Vice-President Directorate-General Administration, EPO President Battistelli, Director General of Croatian State Intellectual Property Office Ljiljana Kuterovac and Croatian Deputy Minister of Science and Education Krešo Zadro” (recall what we previously wrote about Kuterovac [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]).
When people in Croatia look up information about the EPO or when Europeans look up information about Croatia/SIPO we suppose they’re more likely to come across all these puff pieces from the past week, with not a single word in them about the criminal charges against Željko Topić. That’s the art of Googlebombing and when the EPO wastes over a million Euros per year on a peripheral PR agency this whole exercise is likely deliberate. So expect Croatia not to oppose Battistelli’s proposals this week, expect Kuterovac to continue to protect a crook, expect Croatian people to be further bamboozled regarding the UPC (maybe even ratify), and expect the public to know little or nothing about the Vice-President of the EPO and the serious charges against him (which can land him in jail for very a long time).
“Can we also expect Spain, with people like Patricia García-Escudero Márquez in the mix, to be a Battistelli “yes man” this week?”Concerning this week’s meeting in Munich, expect Battistelli to attempt to marginalise the appeal boards even further, to lie yet more about erosion of patent quality (a face-saving announcement was made just days ago), and to further crush the unions. In relation to the Spanish ‘chinchilla’ (or ‘mole’) of Battistelli in the Boards of Appeal Committee (BoAC), as covered here before, see this piece republished on Tuesday (a day before the meeting) just to say: “On March 16, 2016, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM) and the European Patent Office (EPO) signed a new work plan for the cooperation with Ibero America during 2016-2017.”
Can we also expect Spain, with people like Patricia García-Escudero Márquez in the mix, to be a Battistelli “yes man” this week? Judging by previous meetings, it’s very much possible. Battistelli visited Madrid only weeks ago (Spain is strategic to him because of the UPC, which Spain still rightly opposes).
In order for the EPO not to become synonymous with institutional corruption the Administrative Council must take firm and immediate action. █
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 6:11 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Another letter in support of staff of the EPO, this time from the International Labour Organisation
THE FOLLOWING letter, published in support of EPO staff, came from the ILO Staff Union. As a reminder, ILO recently confirmed gross injustice inside the EPO.
Message of support received from the ILO Staff Union
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Staff Union of the ilo wishes to assure you of its support in the fight that you lead for the maintenance of your union functions in decent conditions. Freedom and independence of trade unions are necessary for the accomplishment of a social peace in any society.
Freedom of trade unions and collective bargaining are part of the founding principles of the ilo. This is why we cannot remain indifferent to your situation and you post our solidarity.
Syndicalement
For the committee of the union of the ilo
Yvan Poulin
Treasurer
ILO Staff Union
In today’s protest please take photos (if many people do, then it will be incredibly hard for moles/observers to pinpoint sources) and leak some to us. We’ll remove metadata, faces, etc. prior to publication. It’s definitely possible/accomplishable – even this week! — for the Administrative Council to at least signal the beginning of a ‘swamp-draining’ campaign, which strives to restore law, order and reputation at the EPO, not by union-busting but Battistelli-busting. █
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12.13.16
Posted in Europe, Patents at 10:10 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: A letter of appeal for delegations (of the Administrative Council) to fire Battistelli this week, and to generally put an end to his terrible regime, then undo all the damage caused by him and his friends
THE following letter is currently being disseminated ahead of tomorrow’s meeting and tomorrow’s staff protest. We decided to publish it because it does a good job at explaining how severe the problem has become.
Open letter – by email to the Heads of Delegation
Copies to: Competent Ministries of the Member States
13 December 2016
EPO-FLIER team
epoflier@runbox.com
Request to the Delegations of the Administrative Council to take firm action
Dear Heads and Members of the Delegations to the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation, dear Chairman,
Most EPO staff welcomed the constructive interventions of numerous delegations during the last Administrative Council (AC) meeting1 and their expressed will to apply the Council’s March resolution2. Staff also recognises the attempts of some high ranking national politicians of major contracting states3,4 to convince the President to accept the AC’s resolution. But the crisis caused by the current Administration has not been resolved:
The dismissal of Laurent Prunier, which violates the resolution, was commented by IAM as follows: “The impression given by recent events is not one of firm, balanced management, but of management by intimidation. That is no way to run a patent office.”5
ILO judgment 3785 confirmed that EPO staff is currently left without a functioning first instance for fair legal redress6,7,8 and, due to several dismissals of and continued attacks on Staff Committee members, without any meaningful staff representation. Staff members under pressure from the HR department or their line manager are left without help. The situation can (again) become untenable for individual staff members (including suicide risk9). We are told that other elected staff representatives (i.e. SUEPO officials) are soon to be sanctioned and possibly fired.
The President’s proposal CA/106/16 to revise Article 36(2)(a) Serv Regs in reaction to ILO judgment 3785 shows once more Mr Battistelli’s disrespect for the law and the rights of citizens working for the EPO: “Battistelli’s response to the ILO’s damning decision is to simply change the EPO’s rules to formally give him the power to do exactly what he was being criticized over.”10 It is clear, however, that the judgment gives guidance on the principles of an internal appeals committee. Any solution that Mr Battistelli proposes must be true to those principles, and notably, include the nomination of members by the Staff Committee, without which, according to the ILO-AT, “it is not an appeals committee.”
Moving now to DG311, the President’s interference with the Boards of Appeal has been commented as follows:
“I am afraid (and very sorry) to say that even among the EPO’s top officials, the principle of the Rule of Law does not seem to be respected very much. Where are you, Administrative Council?”12
The president’s disrespect for the rights of others extends to the rights and legitimate expectations of the users of the patent system. As we pointed out earlier, management by intimidation leads to negative effects on the legal validity of granted European patents.13 While, according to the recent PWC study, 80 % of the personnel want to contribute to a successful mission of the EPO, which is to foster innovation, competitiveness and economic growth all over Europe by providing high quality services based on the European Patent Convention, are only 25 % of the opinion that the strategic objectives of the Office support this mission.1 Many of our colleagues share the concerns expressed by the CSC during the last Council meeting: “We want to know where we are going, and whether the EPO is still an employer worth working for.”1
Concerned observers have started realising that it is futile to hope that Mr Battistelli might change his attitude.14 Several national MPs4,15,16,17, senators18,19 and MEPs20 have (repeatedly) reminded (their) governments of their duty of care. Some of them take the view that Mr Battistelli needs to go before the situation can improve.4,14,17 A debate in the Dutch parliament is preparation.15 We urge the Delegations to accept their responsibility for the current situation and to take firm action so that the Office can return to being a place where motivated staff contribute to the success of Europe.
We therefore reiterate the request of our June 2016 open letter13: It is time for the Members of the AC to act: Mr Battistelli is causing immeasurable damage to the Office; he is now untenable.
Trust in the European patent system has been seriously eroded. Before trust can be rebuilt, the architect of the crisis in which the office finds itself needs to be removed, or alternatively, to be suspended until the end of his term.
“Il n’est plus raisonnable d’attendre.”15
With our best regards,
The EPO-FLIER team
a group of concerned staff of the EPO who wish to remain anonymous due to the prevailing harsh social climate and absence of rule of law at the European Patent Office
1 Central Staff Committee (CSC) report about the 149 th meeting of the AC (sc16207cp)
http://techrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Minutes-of-October-2016-AC.pdf
2 http://www.epo.org/about-us/organisation/communiques.html#a23
3 https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2016/03/16/president-europees-octrooibureau-stapt-boos-op-bij-staatssecretaris-van-dam-a1408569
4 Secretary of state Christophe Sirugue’s response to Philip Cordéry’s question: “Nous continuons bien évidemment à faire pression, avec d’autres, pour que soient entendues les causes que je crois justes des salariés que vous avez évoqués. Je dois reconnaître que nous manquons d’alliés dans ce dossier, mais soyez sûrs de notre détermination à faire respecter les droits des salariés !”
http://philipcordery.fr/2016/11/question-gouvernement-situation-sociale-a-loffice-europeen-brevets/
5 EPO users and staff need the Administrative Council to get a grip on current events
http://www.iam-media.com/Blog/Detail.aspx?g=85178c62-24df-403f-990d-f3f5f5c4ce51
6 http://www.ilo.org/dyn/triblex/triblexmain.detail?p_judgment_no=3785
7 http://www.ip-watch.org/2016/12/01/ilo-decisions-said-confirm-epo-staff-lack-fair-legal-system/
8 http://www.worldipreview.com/news/un-agency-sets-aside-two-epo-decisions-criticises-administrative-council-12687
9 http://www.politico.eu/article/labor-relations-turn-toxic-in-the-european-patent-office/
10 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/08/battistelli_to_fix_epo_by_getting_more_power/
11 Proposal CA/82/16, concerning the removal of DG3 to Haar, is likely to create problems rather than solving any: https://ipkitten.blogspot.nl/2016/11/time-for-haar-cut-please-do-not.html
12 The Rule of Law (Rechtsstaat) is Endangered and Needs to be Defended!
http://kluwerpatentblog.com/2016/11/07/rule-law-rechtsstaat-endangered-needs-defended/
13 https://regmedia.co.uk/2016/06/22/epo-open-letter.pdf
14 https://ipkitten.blogspot.fr/2016/11/firings-will-continue-until-morale.html
15 Jean-Yves LECONTE, Situation à l’Office Européen des Brevets : il n’est plus raisonnable d’attendre
http://www.jyleconte.fr/ (Archives, October 2016)
16 http://kluwerpatentblog.com/2016/11/19/debate-in-dutch-parliament-about-deteriorating-social-climate-at-european-patent-office/
17 https://susann-biedefeld.de/meldungen/mdl-susann-biedefeld-kritisiert-verhalten-des-europaeischen-patentamts-gegenueber-arbeitnehmerinnnen-und-arbeitnehmern-aufs-schaerfste/
18 http://claudinelepage.eu/?p=16041 (Archives, November 2016, February 2016), English translations:
https://suepo.org/public/ex16124cpe.pdf, https://www.suepo.org/documents/42509/53610.pdf
19 http://www.richardyung.fr/francais-de-l-etranger/questions-au-gouvernement-francais-etranger-cote-circonscription/4149-degradation-du-climat-social-au-sein-de-loffice-europeen-des-brevets.html
20 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+E-2016-007090+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN
We are happy to receive any more information like the above. █
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 9:33 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Croatian media gives Battistelli some puff pieces and UPC advertisements without mentioning anything at all about Željko Topić or the dire situation at the EPO
THE EPO has a lot of skeletons in its wardrobe (or closet) in Croatia, but nobody inside the EPO is brave enough to bring up the subject, having witnessed what happens to those who do. We have been writing about this since 2014.
“He is definitely promoting the UPC based on the headline and based on what we were told by Croatians over the weekend.”Earlier this week and over the weekend we wrote about the surprise visit of Battistelli who suddenly showed up in Croatia — a move that the EPO neither advertised nor even mentioned. Even DZIV didn’t mention it.
Well, quite belatedly, as sources told us we should expect (inevitably!), DZIV had this event mentioned and an EPO insider informed us of “Battistelli lobbying (again) this time in Croatia: I hope that Croatia would accept a single EU patent” (“Battistelli: Nadam se da će i Hrvatska prihvatiti jedinstveni EU patent“).
He is definitely promoting the UPC based on the headline and based on what we were told by Croatians over the weekend. We got some translations that helped confirm this.
Regarding this almost-secretive Battistelli trip to Zagreb, one reader decided to send us some photos from HINA. It looks like they had this prepared for a while (paying over a million Euros to FTI Consulting, which sometimes pays journalists/publishers, can probably help). Here are the pictures; they had a photoshoot, not just the traditional photo op.
In that second picture, albeit blurred, it looks like it might be Battistelli’s bulldog in the background, but it’s hard to be sure.
Battistelli looks so happy… like he’s about to explode or go on fire that even his daughter can’t put out. He could certainly used some smiling lessons.
Anyway, nitpicking aside for now.
Here is some more information and translations that have been made available to us.
“In that second picture, albeit blurred, it looks like it might be Battistelli’s bulldog in the background, but it’s hard to be sure.”It seems that during his trip to Zagreb Battistelli gave an interview to HINA which is the national government-owned news agency of Croatia. A press release is available on the HINA Web site, but the full text is only accessible to registered users.
Croatian: https://www.hina.hr/vijest/9375579
English: https://www.hina.hr/vijest/9375585
However, an English article based on the HINA press release can be found on the Web site of European Balkan Latest News (eblnews.com). “Battistelli calls on Croatia to join European Unitary Patent project” is the title and it reveals the real/covert/side motivation for Battistelli’s visit. To quote: “Croatia and Spain are the only two EU member states that have not yet joined the European Unitary Patent project, Benoit Battistelli, president of the European Patent Office (EPO), told Hina Friday. Battistelli, who was in Zagreb on Friday to attend the ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the State Institute for Intellectual Property, said that that although it has a relatively low number of patent registrations, Croatia had met condition for the development of a quality patent system. The first step was made when Croatia joined the EPO in 2008, he added. The European Patent Organisation is a public international organisation created in 1977 by its contracting states to grant patents in Europe under the European Patent Convention of 1973. The European Patent Organisation has its seat at Munich, Germany, and has administrative and financial autonomy.”
This is citing HINA, which perhaps didn’t realise the track record of the person whom it gave a platform. In the meantime, another article about the SIPO event was published by the news portal Objektivno.hr: “Državni zavod za intelekutalno vlasništvo obilježava 25. godina postojanja”
An English translation can be found below. It was provided to us for publication:
News
The State Intellectual Property Office celebrates 25 years of existence
The challenges of modern society such as globalization, computerization and development of high technology increase the importance of intellectual property protection, said Ljiljana Kuterovac, director of the State Intellectual Property Office on Friday at the ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of this institute.
As she explained, during these 25 years the Office has passed through long path of development in close co-operation with international and European institutions which provide the financial and technical assistance to developing countries. “The development of the Office coincided with the development and dynamics at a European and international level,” she said.
Deputy Minister of Science and Education Kreso Zadro, stressed the importance of intellectual property for economic development and competitiveness as well as the need for inter-agency cooperation for the development and protection of intellectual property.
He pointed out that the University of Zagreb launched a postgraduate interdisciplinary specialist study called simply “intellectual property” and enrolled 26 students during the first year.
The audience was also addressed by colleagues from European and international organizations including Benoit Battistelli, President of the European Patent Office.
The SIPO then awarded prizes – in the category of seminar and final papers at undergraduate and graduate levels special recognition was earned by Relja Rajković and Luka Kušpilić for the work “Copyright protection fictional characters or: when the superhero and need protection”.
The winner in the category of professional and scientific papers was Romana Matanovac Vučković for the work “The implementation of Directive 2014726/EU on collective management and multi-territorial licensing of music rights in regulating the system of tariffs in Central and Eastern Europe”.
In the beginning the SIPO was called the National Institute of Industrial Property and the State Patent Office, and from 7 November 1996, when field of protection of copyright and related rights came under its jurisdiction, it assumed its present name.
From the emergences of the modern system of intellectual property protection in the late 19th century up to the present day, a legal and institutional framework for the protection of intellectual property has been continuously present in the territory of today’s Republic of Croatia.
Upon entry to the European Union, Croatia became part of the common system of uniform law for trademark and industrial property rights for the entire territory of the European Union, and since 2008 it has been a full member of the European Patent Convention and the European Patent Organisation.
As a member in the vast majority of international agreements and intellectual property protection system under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Croatian national system is fully integrated into the global system of protection.
As of 2 December 2016, there were 133,480 industrial property rights in the register for the territory of the Republic of Croatia, of which 121,929 were trademarks, 6728 patents and 4,813 registered industrial design and of which 88 percent are also registered for foreign rights.
The article by Objektivno.hr reveals that during the 25th anniversary event the SIPO awarded a prize to Romana Matanovac Vučković, who was closely associated with Željko Topić and his previous “protector”, the former Croatian President Ivo Josipovic. But what is really interesting here is that neither the HINA press releases nor any of the published articles mention Topić’s presence in Zagreb alongside Battistelli! A source of ours insists “he can be seen in the background and out of focus in of one of the photos published on the HINA Web site.” (see the photo second from the top). We actually spotted the same thing independently. We have seen enough photos of Topić to suspect that it’s him with glasses on.
Our source says “it’s pretty clear that Topić was with Battistelli in Zagreb, but for some reason the Croatian media has decided not to mention it.”
“These projects are Battistelli’s main source of “carrots” for keeping the smaller member states on his side.”If that’s true, then what probably causes greater concern here is that nothing about Topić’s legal status was covered. Omission of convenience? Conditions imposed before interview? Hard to tell….
We remind readers that the last time Battistelli was scheduled to go to Zagreb with Topić in July 2015 he cancelled his trip at short notice and sent along Francois-Régis Hannart instead. Hannart is a member of Battistelli’s “inner circle” of former INPI employees. He used to be the Director of IT systems at the INPI and he is now the EPO’s Principal Director of European and International Co-operation. This means that he is responsible for overseeing the “cooperation projects” between the EPO and national IPOs. These projects are Battistelli’s main source of "carrots" for keeping the smaller member states on his side. █
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:39 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Battistelli loves to carry out his abuses through London, where Team Battistelli now has an extensive operation more sophisticated than the Mafia’s
Reference: An article published earlier this week
Summary: The culture of bullying inside the EPO has expanded even to the UK with lobbying, threats, lies, and surveillance by peripheral agents such as PwC, FTI Consulting, Fieldfisher, Wellkom and Control Risks
TRUTH is treason at today’s EPO. That’s especially alarming because the EPO is supposed to be an institution of science occupied by scientists and serving scientists, to whom truth is paramount, not just justice.
Earlier this year, just in time for the previous Administrative Council’s meeting, Team Battistelli had PwC paid generously in order to disseminate a lot of lies. We wrote about these in the following posts:
Considering the business that PwC is in, an attack on truth itself is a serious violation of trust if not violation of law. It would be interesting to see if some PwC executives even get arrested for their sheer dishonesty. A few months ago some of the offending IP addresses hammering on our servers (a growing problem this year [1, 2, 3]) actually came from PwC's network and today we see this report titled “PwC sends ‘cease and desist’ letters to researchers who found critical flaw,” which is rather ironic after what PwC did to our servers. To quote:
A security research firm has released details of a “critical” flaw in a security tool, despite being threatened with legal threats.
Munich-based ESNC published a security advisory last week detailing how a remotely exploitable bug in a security tool, developed by auditing and tax giant PwC, could allow an attacker to gain unauthorized access to an affected SAP system.
So PwC turns out to be managed by bullies, just like the EPO, which also sent us numerous legal threats. Whatever they have in common, it probably ought to include megalomania and lack of ethics. As we noted here before, the legal firm that the EPO asked to send threatening letters is also deeply involved in the UPC, where lying has become so routine that it’s just sickening. Sociopaths apparently attract other sociopaths and let’s not forget the EPO’s PR agency, which lies on behalf of fracking companies and also the EPO’s spying agency, which is connected to the Stasi (through Desa) and helped make the false allegations against a BoA judge.
What a gang of thugs!
The Boards of Appeal at the EPO are probably the most crucial part of this whole institution. The EBoA, for example, rules on these key issues and other issues pertaining to patent scope (quality of service). EBoA can actually safely criticise the Office. That’s the original ideas anyway. Guess what Battistelli has done to EBoA… it’s barely even functioning and staff is terrified, despite enjoying independence from Battistelli (at least in principle).
A few days ago people wondered aloud about the fate of the above judge and one person said that Battistelli “being head of an organistion, whose sole role it is to apply law” does the very opposite. To quote:
The way I interpret the EPC, the AC must renew the contract of the BoA member, just to make a decision.
It would be unlawful to not renew while suspended, or they’d still need to pay all his withheld remuneration, as there was no decision of disciplinary measures. And taking a decision of disciplinary measures while not an employee seems even weirder.
But then, what kind of “Rule of Law” does the head of administration uphold, while being head of an organistion, whose sole role it is to apply law?
“For a BoA member to be renewed,” another person said. “he has to be proposed to the AC. By the president. BB will simply not propose the suspended member to the AC for renewal, as he has done (or rather not done) with quite a number of newly appointed or to-be-prolonged members before. So the AC will not be in a position to decide anything.”
In response to this one person wrote:
Not true. Under Article 11(3) EPC (first sentence) appointment of Board members requires a proposal from the President. Reappointment (Art. 11 EPC, second sentence) is the prerogative of the Council which is only required to “consult” with the President.
The President has no veto over reappointment of Board members although he could conceivably attempt to manipulate the Council to block a reappointment.
Article 11(3) EPC:
The members, including the Chairmen, of the Boards of Appeal and of the Enlarged Board of Appeal shall be appointed by the Administrative Council on a proposal from the President of the European Patent Office. They may be re-appointed by the Administrative Council after the President of the European Patent Office has been consulted.
“It would only be fair,” one person responded, “if the BoA is reinstated, that he/she is allowed to additionally serve the 2 years during which he/she was suspended before his/her 5 years term is considered to expire.”
We covered this aspect of the punishment before. The salary in the mean time has already been cut (halved a couple of months ago) and “the responsibility to propose that the BoA member be reappointed,” said another person, “is now to be delegated from BB to the new President of the Boards of Appeal. Whether that will make a difference I don’t know.”
Well, don’t forget Battistelli’s chinchilla in the Boards of Appeal Committee (BoAC) and the role played in selecting the President of the Boards of Appeal. Remember the connections between Patricia García-Escudero Márquez and Battistelli, as we covered these before. There may be more connections; we just haven’t gotten around to exposing these.
Look what a mess the EPO has become. And people daring to say so publicly (even bloggers outside of continental Europe) are being threatened by the long arm of Battistelli and his despicable goons, backed by liars for hire such as PwC, FTI Consulting, Fieldfisher, Wellkom and Control Risks in the UK.
“Surprise , surprise,” a person wrote in another comment today, “change of HR tactics , SR’s [Staff Representatives] getting suddenly salary increases and promotions. Will the sacrificed SR’s be forgotten soon or…”
Staff Representatives are not necessarily SUEPO representatives, many of whom have been threatened, fired, demoted, etc. while the yellow union, FFPE-EPO, has been artificially propped up by Team Battistelli, even in the PwC event (for pretense of staff involvement/endorsement).
The EPO is a sick, sick institution, but sick leave is not allowed under Battistelli. █
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