Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Corruption: Battistelli Augments His 'Loyals' Circle With Frederic Angermann and Charm Offensive in Patent Lawyers' Sites

Jesper Kongstad
Jesper Kongstad. Photo from the Nordic Patent Institute.



Summary: The extent of the EPO's corruption is further revealed by new appointments that reek of conflict of interest and a revival of Benoît Battistelli's fearless authoritarianism (protection offered by an extension of those 'loyal' to his reckless authority)

Battistelli has done a bit of a 'media tour' as of late, striving to improve his image and restore the reputation taken from him by his very own staff.



Battistelli, for reasons we have demonstrated in many past articles, is a bully and a tyrant. He turned the EPO into a private venture, totally detached from public interests, completely unaccountable (Battistelli ousted his opposition and those who oversee him, including external ones in the Enlarged Board of Appeal and perhaps the European Parliament), and filled with a baggage of serious corruption, including many criminal charges. To use a timely analogy, see this year's exclusive report titled "The corruption of Britain: UK’s key institutions infiltrated by criminals". As soon as the media becomes active again we will return to covering new documents and new stories about the EPO scandals. Today we shall look back at recent developments, preceding Christmas Day.

"The collusions galore has turned a seemingly self-regulating disparate collection of organisms (AC, BoA, EPO etc.) into a superorganism that devours or destroys opposition without any accountability."The president of the FFII, which opposes software patents in Europe, wrote last week that "EPO staff representatives who attended heard "je m€´en fou de vos opinions" and "encore un mot et vous etes virez"," noting what he called "EPO corruption" because Battistelli "appointed Frederic Angermann, with whom Benoit [Battistelli] had already successfully worked together at INPI".

This is already the subject of complaints in France, but be sure Battistelli will jump into the scene fuming with "damage control" in the face of many anonymous comments (probably his staff). Patents glamourisation site "Managing Intellectual Property has just published an article," [puff piece] said IP Kat, "containing a series of questions and answers [softball opening lines], put by Managing Editor James Nurton to EPO President Benoit Battistelli and Chariman of the Administrative Council, Jesper Kongstad."

Here is this puff piece from the patent lawyers' site.

"Mr Jesper Kongstad reminds people that the EPO is financing itself for the patent fees," wrote the FFII's President, correctly calling it a lie ("wrong") because much of the money is actually derived from European taxpayers. "Sorry Mr Jesper Kongstad," he continues, "representatives of 38 gov of EPO AC are not democratically elected, not elected by people" (in fact, some are very much connected to those whom they are supposed to oversee or regulate).

As we have shown before, Jesper Kongstad is loyal to Battistelli and his cronies. He even provides coverup for them. Him speaking alongside Battistelli serves as somewhat of a clue here. That's not how two independent bodies should present themselves to the press. They're conjoined through mutual loyalty, or 'protection', to use Mafia-inspired terminology. The collusions galore has turned a seemingly self-regulating disparate collection of organisms (AC, BoA, EPO etc.) into a superorganism that devours or destroys opposition without any accountability. Even the European Parliament is too timid to handle this monster, which resembles the way that Congress and Senate in the United States now approach three-letter agencies, especially the CIA.

What goes on in the EPO is a very big deal because those who run the organisation do a huge disservice to all member nations. "Videos of the UPC rules of procedure being written by the patent industry are here," writes the FFII's President. We have been warning about the UPC for years.

Thankfully, judging by the will of the staff (the heart of the EPO), the EPO's management continues its collapse as people at all levels protest. As Merpel from IP Kat put it the other day: "Over the past month, this weblog has hosted news and developments of reports of unrest among the workers at the European Patent Office (EPO). These have been some of the most commented-upon posts in this history of the blog. The unrest is not, as might have been supposed, only at the level of the Examiners and regular employees, but even within the exalted ranks of the Boards of Appeal and Enlarged Board. Since news does not develop in a neat and tidy manner, the IPKat has asked Merpel to review the recent events, to write a brief summary of the events themselves and to outline the issues now facing the EPO. Merpel emphasises the word "brief"; with hundreds of comments, it is not going to be possible to reflect them all in detail."

A lot of this debate comes from and is shaped by EPO staff, not just stakeholders. In the coming weeks we shall say a lot more about what's wrong with the EPO and why some of its managers (including the very top ones) should be in prison, not in an overpriced office in Munich (alluding not only to Željko Topić here). We welcome sources to come forth if there is more that they can anonymously share with us.

Recent Techrights' Posts

New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
 
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
Google itself is a slop pusher these days
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day
Slopwatch Appreciated by Real Authors of GNU/Linux Articles
We do try to keep on top of those things
Upgraded R.R.R.R.R.R. Today
The Web of 2025 is full of garbage, not limited to slopfarms
Freedom From Proprietary Prisons
Forking always an option
IBM's Watson Died in 1956, Now Watson Dies Again
IBM is becoming just a reseller of GAFAM and other stuff
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Google News
We've also just noticed more slop from UbuntuPIT
Microsoft Says That Constant Mass Layoffs Are Success, the Media Isn't Buying This Microsoft Narrative Anymore
If people in the media feel an obligation to repeat whatever lies Microsoft tells, what point will there be to the media?
Links 08/10/2025: "Mali Puts Free Speech on Trial" And Apple Enforces Dictatorship
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: ‘Death to Spotify’ and Law to Ban Loud Commercials on Streaming (Dis)Services
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Real Innovation and Nina.chat is Dead
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Y2K38 Bug is a Vulnerability, Chat Control in Europe a Threat
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
How and Why Once-Legitimate Sites Turn Into Slopfarms
Many sites will go offline and many social control networks will shut down once they realise or even openly admit they spend money and time gardening a bunch of bots and slop
UbuntuPIT Became a Slopfarm and Gnoppix Tarnishes Its Own Brand With Slop
It fits all the characteristics of mildly-edited (if at all) slop
Slopwatch: Linux Journal and Other Slopfarms
GAFAM needs to go the way of the dodo
Gemini Links 08/10/2025: "Seek Seek Revolution" and Gradient Backgrounds
Links for the day
Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 07, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Stagnation of the Economy and What Free Software Can (or Could) Do For It
If your economic model is based on a pyramid of lies, it won't last very long
Social Control Media is Sinking
it would rightly seem like the era of centralised "social" sites (they're not social, they're about controlling the users) is ending, not overnight but gradually