10.05.16
Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 6:57 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Another TTIP/TPP-like spiel… because they want all the money and power and would lie for it
Reference: Peter Popoff
Mr. Popoff lied to people (said he spoke for God) and seriously harmed them in order to get their money. Likewise, the EPO and so-called ‘experts’ (a conspiracy of self-serving law firms) are lying to people (while claiming to speak for SMEs) in order to systematically rob Europe with broad lawsuits and shakedowns.
Summary: Another fine example where the echo chamber of Team UPC is trying to sell us the illusion that European businesses want the UPC
THIS Web site has spoken out against the UPC for nearly a decade, since before it was even known as “UPC”. One might think that it’s all over for UPC amid Brexit, but don’t put the guards down and rest on the laurels because history shows that foul play and nefarious tricks can accomplish all sorts of things, by pulling the right strings behind closed doors. We see this in TISA, CETA, TTIP, TPP, ACTA or whatever the powerful corporations and their lobbyists/lawyers want to have.
Also, the UPC ‘mission creep’ can still be found on the surface…
Bristows, a UPC pusher and British parasite, wants us to believe that the words of Tilmann (mentioned here before in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]) count for something objective. Team UPC basically cites another Team UPC member and people notice this. One of them said that the paper was “authored under the chairmanship of Prof. Tilmann” (which isn’t OK).
IP Kat promotes the UPC quite a lot these days, at least when it’s Bristows staff authoring the posts. Here is the comment in full (under the misleading article with a misleading headline, courtesy of Bristows staff):
Since the author is keeping quite on this: “The German Bar Association’s recent position paper” was authored under the chairmanship of Prof. Tilmann who is presiding over the relevant sub-committee. For obvious reasons, this is not irrelevant and should be mentioned, at least if an objective information of the readers was intended.
So Tilmann of Team UPC interjected himself into IP Kat through Bristows (Team UPC). Nice propaganda, but people do notice:
To be fully objective, it should be stated as well that Prof. Tilmann is as well uttering a pro-domo plea as he has been heavily involved in the launching of the UPC. That the German Bar Association position paper reflects the position of its chairman is not a surprise.
In German he can be qualified as “Wendehals”, i.e. flexible neck.
In a first paper analysing Opinion 1/09 of the EuCJ, he was most adamant that the UPC was only open to EU member states. After Brexit, this opinion was not so important and a few amendments to the UPC under Art 87 would allow not only the post Brexit participation of the UK, but also further non EU member states.
It is amazing to see how an opinion can change when one’s own interests are at stake…..
We hope that IP Kat realises what it’s stooping down to. I confronted one of their writers this morning. █
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Posted in Asia, Europe, Patents at 6:38 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Who needs examiners anyway? Battistelli makes the EPO more like INPI or SIPO (China).
Summary: The highly corrosive and destructive nature of Battistelli’s EPO presidency is demonstrated by his latest moves, which he foolishly advertises in the EPO’s Web site today (both the so-called ‘news’ section and his so-called ‘blog’)
WHETHER or not the EPO is becoming 'French' (i.e. no patent examination) it might be too early to tell, but in a matter of 2-3 years the stock will have run out and EPO examiners can expect massive layoffs. Insiders too tell us so.
“Battistelli is causing irreparable damage and people are seeing that.”The very low quality of patents in China (granted by SIPO, not the Croatian one) may be a sign of things to come at the EPO, under the leadership of Battistelli and the people he brought to the EPO (mostly from France, usually former colleagues from INPI where there’s no quality control). It’s all about quantity, not quality. Apparently, as I was told this earlier today by a university professor, Saudi Arabia had been pursing a similar strategy. They just use patents as trophies (false surrogate for innovation) and provide incentives — sometimes huge financial awards — for people to pursue the dumbest of patents just to increase the number of patents and give the illusion of scientific advancement/leadership. If this sounds like what the EPO is becoming, then it’s probably because it’s true.
“Dusting off some old files (some as old as 18 years ago we’re told!) and rubberstamping them is not “production” but a shoddy job, a cheat, and a rapid destruction of everything that the EPO stands for.”In my daily life I happen to speak to various academics and people who work in my domain. A lot of companies in Europe — as today I’ve learned — are reassessing the value of EPs (European patents) after the EPO descended to the gutter of patent quality. Dutch attorneys too are receiving queries to that effect, based on their letter which we published last week. Battistelli is causing irreparable damage and people are seeing that. Dusting off some old files (some as old as 18 years ago we’re told!) and rubberstamping them is not “production” but a shoddy job, a cheat, and a rapid destruction of everything that the EPO stands for.
Based on this tweet from earlier today and the Battistelli brain fart it links to (warning: epo.org address), the very low-quality patents of China are now common grounds for Battistelli. Is this what he strives for now? Attracting all the rejects, even from other countries, in order to just rubberstamp their rubbish? Is this the future of the EPO? It’s spelling doom for the EPO’s reputation and value. How much would people pay for EPs? 500 Euros apiece? What would that mean to existing grantees of EPs? How can one separate the wheat from the chaff or the noise from the signal? Battistelli, in our view, finds friends only in authoritarian regimes these days (including China) because no honourable politicians in Europe would associate with such a thug (they do their homework or have it done for them by their PAs). Here is the bogus ‘news’ from today (warning: epo.org address), complete with a photo op and glamourisation of the thug, Battistelli. To quote: “On Friday 30 September, President Benoît Battistelli welcomed Commissioner Shen of the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China (SIPO) to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. The visit was held on the occasion of the annual EPO-SIPO Heads of Offices meeting, this year hosted by the EPO in Europe. The meeting is an annual fixture for the two offices and offered a valuable opportunity to discuss strategic topics of mutual interest and to take stock of the results achieved within the framework of both IP5 and bilateral co-operation.”
“Battistelli, in our view, finds friends only in authoritarian regimes these days (including China) because no honourable politicians in Europe would associate with such a thug (they do their homework or have it done for them by their PAs).”Worth noting: this meeting took place in France. Saint-Germain-en-Laye even (Battistelli was the mayor of the Paris suburb of Saint-Germain-en-Laye). The EPO has no branches/office in France. France is not a host country and France’s patent system is mostly a joke (some say because language barriers discourage applications from being sent there).
Battistelli has made the EPO look like something worse than a joke. It’s a banana republic!
And speaking of bananas, watch today’s news headlines to find “Seedy business: Patent war looms over Europe’s crop diversity”
Well, how far should patent scope go? Under Battistelli, anything goes…
Patents on seeds and plants are supporting a monopoly’s business model, not innovation or common interests. Here is what the article says:
An imminent EU legal opinion on food patents has raised fears among smaller businesses that agrichemical giants such as Monsanto and Syngenta will be able to monopolize varieties of staples like carrots and broccoli.
The European Commission is expected to issue an opinion before the end of the year to clarify ambiguities in EU law over the extent to which food products can be patented. The forthcoming decision has sparked a flurry of 11th-hour lobbying from industry and green campaigners.
The debate hinges on the nature of the innovation and whether the plant breeding techniques constitute genetic modification, or involve processes that are seen as altered or accelerated versions of more natural, biological processes.
Big companies argue that the ability to patent foods and seeds is critical to their business model, which involves pouring millions of euros into engineering bio-tech crops that they say are healthier for consumers and more resistant to pests. Their opponents say biological processes and their products should not be allowed to become exclusive to individual companies. They complain that food security and the environment could be at risk if crop diversity is reduced, with the most common vegetables being controlled by a handful of deep-pocketed companies.
In other news from today, the EPO has granted another crappy patent, this time on a thing that can prevent access to life-saving treatment. The patent is now partly revoked [1, 2, 3, 4]. How many people need to die from Hepatitis C because the EPO under Battistelli continues to fail to actually do the job properly*? Verging endorsement of software patents again, today the EPO links to a notorious page that we wrote about before and soon enough the Office is going south (not just literally), to a country where software patents sort of exist.
“How many people need to die from Hepatitis C because the EPO under Battistelli continues to fail to actually do the job properly?”If the EPO does not sort out its patent quality, for which it earned reputation in the first place, then it will lose everything. Battistelli doesn’t need to care because he can always go back to his political career in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Politicians needn’t retire in their 60s and Nicolas Sarkozy, Battistelli's political ally, is reportedly running for leadership again. █
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* Like organising stupid and self-aggrandising festivals for lobbying purposes at the expense of millions of Euros while buying the media — all this instead of focusing on actually examining patents, then granting or rejecting them based on their merit.
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Posted in Courtroom, Europe, Patents at 5:28 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“The file against me contains so many demonstrably fabricated accusations that I have little doubt I can defend myself – or, rather I would be able to if, our internal system were not what it is currently, a kangaroo court.”
–Laurent Prunier, EPO staff representative
Summary: The EPO’s kangaroo courts and farcical notion of justice should serve as a warning sign to anyone seeking patent justice at the EPO, either as partners/employees or stakeholders/applicants
THE EPO is a horrible, horrible place to work at. The staff survey speaks for itself and people who work for the EPO constantly remind us of the nature of the workplace, comparing it to being in the trenches.
The kangaroo courts of the EPO are some of the most jaw-dropping aspects of the EPO. Anyone can be accused of anything and so-called ‘evidence’ even fabricated or ‘sexed up’ in order to do whatever the egoistic President wants, making up for his insecurities and cluelessness by merely bullying people. We covered several examples of that over the past year. It’s not about one person. There are many victims and only few of them are courageous enough to go public.
President Battistelli believes he can be the accuser, the jury and a judge above the law (both national and international). He also acts a lot like an executioner, judging by the number of dismissal letters he sends out to people who represent staff (we might elaborate on this in some future series). Would EPO managers get away with murdering little girls because of the immunity they proudly claim inside Eponia? Read this new comment (posted today in relation to the EPO):
To: “Et sinon je reprendrais bien des croquettes”
When a drunken diplomat kills a little girl, immunity is upheld, but the diplomat is declared “persona non grata” and sent back to his or her country. The diplomat is then supposed to be judged there.
The Vienna convention was never designed so that diplomats can kill little girls with impunity. It was designed to protect, for example, USA diplomats to be judged for “anti-communist activities” in the former USSR.
In the case of International organisations, however, I am not really sure how the “persona non grata” concept is supposed to apply.
The above continues with more direct statements rather than hypothetical analogies:
Something else.
It has been 3 months since the Enlarged Board published that the EPO President violated judicial independence and nothing has happened. This is outrageous.
There is also the subject of the frivolity of the accusations. The board of appeal member who is the subject of the decision did, as far as I can tell from the available documents, nothing wrong. The accusations were downright ridiculous: having “objects which can be constructed as weapons” and “nazi memorabilia”. The exact wording at the time fails me, but it really sounded as if they combed his office and found nothing but a pocket knife and an history book to frame him.
This is also absolutely outrageous. It looks like the so called “investigation team”, even with major breaches of confidentiality (they bugged the computers used by the Council themselves, remember?) could not find anything serious and yet the board member is still guilty. Of what?
Next, we have had members of Suepo dismissed for, apparently, also nothing. Pure “coincidence”, according to a vice-president. Apparently, a few more will be dismissed soon.
As it was said on German TV: this is “Gantanamo auf Deutschem Boden”. How long will this scandal last?
From what we understand, it was sports equipment (a club), not a knife. It’s amazing how far Battistelli would go to get his way… we can also envision Parallel Construction being used to entrap or perhaps wrongly/falsely accuse the person, who in principle enjoys complete independence from the Office of Battistelli (evidently not in practice, especially when the Council and the Board of Mr. Kongstad become lapdogs rather than watchdogs of Battistelli).
The comment above is interesting and it is new. It’s a comment to which one person replied with a famous saying: “For evil to prevail it is only necessary that good men do nothing …”
I agree. There is a moral duty here. All my coverage regarding the EPO was done for zero financial gain. It’s just the right thing to do.
Another person said this:
The original accusation was that the member of the board of appeal used the public computers of the Office to spread “defamatory” material on VP3 – the weapons and nazi memorabilia were conveniently found later in his office and used for a classical case of character assassination.
To further reinforce the narrative about defamation, VP3 sued the member of the board of appeal for in a German court – you may have read the outcome above (28/09): it appears that the Procurator dismissed the case recently.
How long will this scandal last?
Scandal? Who says this is a “scandal” – you? And what about Newspapers, Lawyers, Judges, the IP world? Did you see any reaction from them? Because I didn’t. Therefore, it’s not a scandal. The Administrative Council is acting like this is totally normal. No scandal here.
If you wanna a scandal read TMZ.
The corporate media — and even so-called ‘IP’ media for that matter (we put IP in scare quotes because it’s a vague term that can refer to a plethora of entirely different things, not necessarily patents) — aids the EPO’s abuses by a conspiracy of silence and indifference. We spoke to some people from within this media and we know how and why they are gagged regarding the EPO. We think that a lot of so-called ‘IP’ media wants to just receive prepared ‘articles’ or advertise in ‘article’ form for the EPO, not engage in actual journalism. We recently covered examples from two major 'IP' media sites. Don’t expect them to cover the EPO scandals because they’re not designed or equipped for that. It’s just not their business model.
“Something is not just rotten at Eponia. Rotten is far too gentle a term and we intend to dig as deep as necessary to show what the EPO has truly become.”“Isn’t that just the point,” asked another new commenter (clustered deep inside an article from June at IP Kat, as the site no longer covers the scandals, just promotes the UPC for Battistelli). “The EPO’s immunity is designed to protect French Enarques from being pursued for “anti-union activities” on the territory of EPOnia. I see no incompatibility with the aims of the Vienna Convention …”
Tomorrow we shall continues our series about Mr. Kongstad. There will be a total of (by our estimation) nearly 10 parts.
Something is not just rotten at Eponia. Rotten is far too gentle a term and we intend to dig as deep as necessary to show what the EPO has truly become. █
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Posted in Patents at 4:31 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Full size | Original PDF
Summary: Pieter Hintjens died yesterday, but his campaign to end software patents won’t die
LONG before we covered the EPO in depth we had published a lot of articles about software patents in Europe. One of our most powerful voices was Pieter Hintjens, who sometimes even contributed. Pieter died yesterday. It was a sad day for many including yours truly and we are still thinking about him. Many people only discovered him after his death or while he was in his deathbed.
The Wikipedia page does him some justice. Speaking from my own experience, Hintjens had a wonderful sense of humour, playful cleverness as Stallman likes to call it, and avid activism with a technical edge. I really liked him and I will miss him forever. Many other people feel the same way.
During the software patents “war”, Wildeboer said, Hintjens did this, pointing to the image above. Georg Greve, the guy behind the FSFE, said the same thing.
“I have a big box of papers from the swpat directive at my parents’ place,” Benjamin Henrion responded. “There should be one on there. And SSP [Stop Software Patents] tshirts as well.” He later added a link to the original PDF (of the above, we’ve made a local copy).
What a great example of the clever humour of Hintjens! He did many other stunts like this.
“Before slashdot era,” Henrion recalls, “there was segfault. Pieter wrote an article in 1998 predicting that Microsoft was patent tax FOSS #visionary” (and he was right!).
So rest in piece, online friend. We shall carry on fighting against abstract patents on algorithms. █
Photo credit: Hintjens “really liked this photo,” says Adam Flaherty. Photo by Tim Lossen.
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10.04.16
Posted in Deception, Europe, Patents at 4:22 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
The latest increase in the FTI Consulting deal/contract targets German and Dutch media specifically
Full article: Sheldon Adelson’s Purchase of Las Vegas Paper Seen as a Power Play
Remember who attacked a judge in the German and Dutch media very shortly (a few weeks) after signing the FTI Consulting deal
Summary: The staff union of the EPO (SUEPO) is planning another couple of demonstrations next week and the EPO’s payments to European media bear fruit, serving to demonstrate the corrupting influence of Battistelli’s bizarre budget choices and mind-boggling priorities (managing perceptions, not changing behaviour)
THERE IS PLENTY to be angry about at the EPO and SUEPO will lead a march next week, having just announced that the next demonstrations are to take place on the 11th and 13th of October, coinciding with the meeting of the Administrative Council. To quote the full announcement:
On 11 October Mr Battistelli will hold his much publicised (yet another “first in the history of the Office”) Social Conference where he will be trumpeting his achievements just before the meeting of the Administrative Council on 12/13 October. Meanwhile, the attacks against SUEPO officials are continuing in The Hague with three investigations/disciplinary proceedings. SUEPO organises a demonstration on Tuesday 11 October in Munich in front of the EPO Isar building starting at 12.30h, and on Thursday 13 October in The Hague.
No doubt the media will hardly cover it, having been given a lethal injection by the EPO. The EPO is paying to control the media in the Netherlands and in Germany. It is also PAYING some French publishers like Les Echos (for self-censorship and habitual propaganda), which Battistelli later cites in his private letters as ‘proof’ of his dubious claims. Here in the UK the EPO pays FT (Financial Times) for UPC propaganda (as recently as last week) and one EPO insider found some new UPC material in relation to Brexit. It comes from Les Echos (EPO-funded) and the insider called it “Pro UPC Propaganda as expected – Le « paquet brevet » suspendu au Brexit” (published and mentioned earlier today).
Expect more of the media manipulation from the EPO’s top-level management. It’s their spiel now. They have no compelling story to tell, so instead they’re trying to sell. They literally pay the media, which in turn publishes puff pieces and even fields social media accounts to spread the EPO’s talking points (FT did this some months ago).
“Expect more of the media manipulation from the EPO’s top-level management. It’s their spiel now.”Remember the time IAM attempted to distance itself from the EPO after the EPO's foreign PR agency had paid IAM for UPC propaganda? Well, IAM has just published a new issue of its totally completely honestly objective ‘magazine’ and in it appears to be the big lie about EPO patent quality. It is paywalled, so it’s hard to say exactly what’s in it. They do, however, help the EPO and Battistelli lie about patent quality (they are the only citation the EPO and Battistelli use for such a claim, with Battistelli repeatedly mentioning IAM privately and publicly). It is really that bad and it’s verging the pathetic. Does the Administrative Council not mind that Battistelli is wasting millions of Euros buying (one might say “corrupting”) European media? And all this to mislead the public and mislead the Council’s delegates? If not, then it makes these delegates complicit.
To be sure, the UPC propaganda will end pretty soon, at least as far as its relevance to the UK and Brexit is concerned. IP Kat wrote so much on the subject (usually in favour of the UPC) and here we have a new article about EU-wide injunctions. Well, EU-wide injunctions (even beyond the EU) would be a standard occurrence if UPC (litigation chaos) was ever to sneak into Europe.
“We hope that EPO staff will join us in opposing the UPC.”One new comment, among other such comments (a thread initiated by the UPC proponents, like most others), said today: “Of course, a solution would be for the UK to enact legislation to the effect that any judgement of the UPC in respect of an EP patent for which there is a GB part to be automatically enforceable in the UK. Maybe not so good for UK litigators but good for industry.”
The self-serving Team UPC is mostly a litigation industry, hence it’s craving for the UPC (more money for them at the expense of plaintiffs and defendants in Europe). We hope that EPO staff will join us in opposing the UPC. All it does is (and we’ve been writing about this for nearly a decade*), it threatens to eliminate EPO jobs and reduce Europe into litigious chaos that’s enriching the litigation industry. The very fact that Battistelli has been pushing for the UPC for many years (previous incarnation) raises questions as well; who does this man work for? █
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* Techrights is turning 10 next month and the early efforts to unify patent litigation in Europe go even further back than that.
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 4:27 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Today is World Animal Day, so the timing seems right for articles about the not-so-glamorous side of Jesper Kongstad
In the opening part of this series and in the previous post we explained the significance and relevance of Mr. Kongstad’s professional life in Denmark to the EPO. These things are clearly inseparable. Potential ethical breaches too were alluded to.
“The subject of skinning for fur (fashion for the super-rich) is not unexplored, not in the context of a company that Mr. Kongstad is professionally connected to.”In the previous part we noted that the Kongstad family used to live in Rungsted, an affluent suburban neighborhood in Hørsholm Municipality on the Øresund coast, north of Copenhagen. In 2013 they relocated to a farmhouse in Valby, Helsinge. It is a rural area in the Gribskov municipality which is situated about 80 km north-west of Copenhagen. A number of Danish press articles reported on the Kongstad family’s relocation to a more pastoral setting in Valby which was said to be motivated by a desire for a change in life-style, but our sources suspect it may have been connected to/motivated by farming small animals for their skin.
The subject of skinning for fur (fashion for the super-rich) is not unexplored, not in the context of a company that Mr. Kongstad is professionally connected to. We spent some time researching the subject and herein we shed some more light on it. Some photos that might be of interest will precede a more detailed analysis with sources.
We present some photos related to the Kongstad story/stories. The photos of the property (farmhouse) at Vibelandsvej 8, Valby, 3200 Helsinge – Gribskov come from various sources.
1. Google Maps & StreetView (the original photos are larger, but rescaled inline to fit the page)
2. The Facebook page of “Kongstad Chinchillas” (tagged below as “FB”, the 3 photographs below)
3. Screen shots from a local news program on Danish TV (tagged below as “TV”, the 3 photographs below)
There was also an article (in Danish) about the Chinchilla project in a Danish Farmer’s Magazine (LandbrugsAvisen) in 2014. In the first photo, Ms. Kongstad poses with her dog Hector in front of the farmhouse.
“But the point to remember here is that Kongstad and his wife aren’t making any secret about their Chinchilla project. In fact quite the opposite — they seem to be actively canvassing publicity from various media in Denmark and via Facebook.”We would like to emphasise that we don’t encourage or condone invasions of privacy. But the point to remember here is that Kongstad and his wife aren’t making any secret about their Chinchilla project. In fact quite the opposite — they seem to be actively canvassing publicity from various media in Denmark and via Facebook. So they hardly have any grounds for complaining if their publicised activites attract unwanted attention. We don’t see that as involving any invasion of privacy.
If someone posts photos on their Facebook page then they can hardly complain if they end up being commented on and perhaps reproduced elsewhere (although there might be copyright issues with that).
We are planning a dedicated article on the Chinchilla project so we might like to put out there some of the photos until that is ready. We shall get back to that in the near future.
“Kongstad’s farmhouse residence in Denmark is officially called “Bremelandsgård”.”Regarding Bremelandsgård, the farmhouse above, some additional information reached us only days ago.
Kongstad’s farmhouse residence in Denmark is officially called “Bremelandsgård”. “Gård” is a Danish word meaning farm so the name means “Bremelands farm”. There is a photo of the farmhouse and buildings on Panoramio. That photo was taken in 2011 which is about two years before the Kongstads acquired the property (2013). To see the road entrance to the property on Google Maps (Street View) use this link. █
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 3:42 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Part of a series
Summary: A look at the professional life of the Chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation, including the lesser-known aspects of Jesper Kongstad’s farmhouse/mansion in Denmark (shown above)
Jesper Kongstad is the current Director of the Danish Patent and Trademark Office and Chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation. He is also a member of the Board of the Nordic Patent Institute.
“Kongstad rejected this suggestion and claimed that the redundancies which he defended as “just sound management” were a justifiable reaction to the downturn in applications.”In 2009, Kongstad put his name forward as a candidate for the position of President of the European Patent Office which was due to be filled on 1 July 2010. In December 2009, he withdrew his candidacy allegedly as the result of some kind of secret deal with Battistelli.
Kongstad was subsequently elected as Chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation on June 29, 2010. He took up office on 1 July 2010 for an initial period of three years, which was later extended to six years in March 2013. He was re-elected for a further period of three years in March 2016.
Kongstad has been the Director of the Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO) since 2003. In 2009 it was reported that the DKPTO had laid off 35 members of staff after seeing a slump in applications due to the global recession. This layoff amounted to somewhere around 15% of the total workforce of the DKPTO. It was criticised is some quarters as “a very drastic approach” and it was suggested that the DKPTO was using the crisis as an excuse to cut certain services. Kongstad rejected this suggestion and claimed that the redundancies which he defended as “just sound management” were a justifiable reaction to the downturn in applications.
“Despite the Scandinavian tradition for transparency and accountability, Kongstad is ironically an outspoken opponent of transparency rules for IP trading.”It’s also interesting to note that during 2009 and 2010 the DKPTO was involved in an EU twinning project with the Croatian State Intellectual property office (SIPO). This is where Željko Topić had worked before he started abusing EPO staff like he did at SIPO.
Despite the Scandinavian tradition for transparency and accountability, Kongstad is ironically an outspoken opponent of transparency rules for IP trading.
From his CV which appears on LinkedIn it can be seen that Kongstad began his professional career in Denmark as an administrative officer in the Ministry for Industry (1984-1990). In 1990 he began working at the Statens Serum Institute where he remained in various roles until 1999. Statens Serum Institute is a public enterprise under the Danish Ministry of Health. After that he switched to the private sector where he was CEO of a biopharmaceutical startup company called Astion A/S.
“He is rumored to have strong connections to the conservative-liberal Venstre party which was in government at that time. It has been speculated that his political connections might have assisted him in securing his position at the DKPTO but this cannot be confirmed.”In 2003 Kongstad returned to the public sector when he was appointed as Director of the DKPTO. He is rumored to have strong connections to the conservative-liberal Venstre party which was in government at that time. It has been speculated that his political connections might have assisted him in securing his position at the DKPTO but this cannot be confirmed.
Some sources alleged that the Kongstad family used to live in a fashionable upmarket suburb of Copenhagen, but the Kongstads did not live directly in Copenhagen as originally believed but rather in Rungsted which is an affluent suburban neighborhood in Hørsholm Municipality on the Øresund coast, north of Copenhagen. In 2013 they suddenly relocated to a farmhouse in Valby, Helsinge in the Gribskov municipality which is situated about 80 km north-west of Copenhagen. The source for this is an article published in February 2014 in a Danish Farmer’s Magazine called “LandbrugsAvisen”. The article is entitled “Fra villa til chinchilla” – From the villa to chinchillas.
According to publicly available data on Danish real estate websites, the house in Valby boasts an impressive 240 square metres of floor space and the property includes around 22 hectares of agricultural land. One recent evaluation put the property value at 4.6 million DKR (about 620k Euros at current exchange rates).
“Whatever about that, the move to the farmhouse has given Kongstad’s wife, Majbritt, the possibility to reinvent herself as a chinchilla-breeder and director of a fur farming operation which was reportedly inspired by a dinner table conversation with Torben Nielsen, the then Chief Executive of Kopenhagen Fur. “In Danish press articles which reported on the Kongstad family’s move from Rungsted to a more pastoral setting in Valby, the move was said to be motivated by a desire for a change in life-style. But some people who have looked into the matter think that there may be more to it than just this. As far as can be determined, the purchase of the farmhouse was financed mostly by credit (mortgage). At the same time, it is unclear what exactly happened to the proceeds of the sale of the previous upmarket suburban house which could have been expected to yield some gains due to the rise in property prices in the Rungsted area over the years. It has been speculated that at least some of the proceeds from the Rungsted house sale might have been used to cover losses in one or more of the various private businesses operated by Mr. Kongstad and his family.
Whatever about that, the move to the farmhouse has given Kongstad’s wife, Majbritt, the possibility to reinvent herself as a chinchilla-breeder and director of a fur farming operation which was reportedly inspired by a dinner table conversation with Torben Nielsen, the then Chief Executive of Kopenhagen Fur.
Note: For those unfamiliar with the fur industry, Kopenhagen Fur is the largest fur skin auction company in the world. Recent research has also uncovered some interesting connections between Kopenhagen Fur and allegations of attempts to buy influence in Danish politics including a donation to the Venstre party which we hope to look at in more detail later on.
In future articles we intend to take a closer look at Mr. Kongstad’s political masters in Denmark and the rumoured connections to the Venstre party. We would also like to examine his various private business ventures and the questions which these raise about potential conflicts of interest. █
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 2:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: An introductory post to a series of articles about the Chairman of the Administrative Council at the European Patent Organisation
EVERY once in a while we publish in-depth stories about the EPO. These help both outsiders and EPO insiders better understand how the EPO operates and who operates it. This week we shall look deeper into the professional life of the Chairman of the Administrative Council, Jesper Kongstad. He is not only Battistelli’s successor but also his protector (if not facilitator rather than overseer), as we first pointed out more than 2 years ago.
Some of our contacts have been carrying out research into Mr. Kongstad’s background and they managed to unearth a lot of interesting information. We are in the process of analysing it and we estimate that there would be sufficient material for a series of articles. At the moment our current plan would be to structure the material into five parts along the following lines:
- Introducing Jesper Kongstad
- Kongstad’s political masters
- Kongstad’s private business ventures
- The curious case of Bremelandsgård: Chinchilla fur farming and Kopenhagen Fur
- Fjorblink Medical Apps: a possible conflict of interest?
Please be patient. We hope to be able to publish the first few installments some time this week. As a teaser we provide readers with this link to the publicly accessible Danish Register of Companies Herein, anyone can see a list of companies which are registered at Mr. Kongstad’s home address in Helsinge, which is located on Zealand in Denmark. More to follow soon. █
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