Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO’s Investigative Unit Exposed: Part III

"Investigative" is an understatement, maybe even a euphemism

Florian Andres



Summary: A closer look at what has become known as the 'gestapo' of the EPO, starting with the founder of the Investigative Unit (I.U.), Florian Andres

PARTS I and II examined the roots of the EPO's Investigative Unit, known internally as the 'gestapo'. Starting today, our plan is to explain what makes up the notorious Investigative Unit and who is doing what.



Our series is likely to upset some managers at the EPO, but we can assure the management that our new sources don't have a personal grudge. They just want to inform the world what is happening inside the EPO. The EPO's management likes to brag about "transparency", so we are basically trying to help. Seeing that the EPO sure does struggle when it comes to transparency, we believe that transparency can also come from below.

"The EPO's management likes to brag about "transparency", so we are basically trying to help."We begin our in-depth series with Florian Andres, former PD 0.6 and founder of the Investigative Unit. "Mr. Andres was appointed by Battistelli," explained a source to us, "as the Principal Director of Internal Audit and Oversight (PDIAO or PD 0.6) sometime in 2010 or 2011 and he held this position until his retirement in December 2014.

"Mr. Andres oversaw the establishment of the EPO Investigative Unit in 2012.

"In the article entitled "Staat im Staate" ("A state within a state") published in the weekend edition of the Süddeutsche Zeitung on 20/21 December 2014, he was described as "a friendly, bearded man from Switzerland" who was responsible for writing the EPO Investigation Guidelines."

"His most notable achievement during his time as PD 0.6 seems to have been the "whitewashing" of Željko Topić by means of a sham internal investigation."

This was reported on by Techrights earlier this year.

Some time ago an anonymous person sent us a photograph of Mr. Andres being confronted by protesting EPO staff in front of the EPO headquarters in Munich. That was on the 17th of October, 2013. It was on the rare occasion of the 40th Anniversary celebrations of the signing of the EPC (we strongly advise readers who work for the EPO not to click on this link as it can facilitate tracking by the Investigative Unit and its peripheral goons). To just quote what's on the page, it's self-glorifying hogwash which goes as follows:

Hundreds of people joined our celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the signature of the European Patent Convention (EPC) in Munich on 17 October 2013. They heard our keynote speaker Herman van Rompuy, President of the European Council, and leading experts including Tian Lipu, Commissioner of the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office, Ferdinando Beccalli-Falco, CEO of GE Europe, and Harold Goddijn, CEO of TomTom. These panellists, moderated by Nina Dos Santos of CNN, debated the role of innovation in driving the European economy and how the EPC can continue to ensure that Europe maintains its place amongst the leaders in technological innovation.


It's interesting to see the CEO of TomTom in there. Remember what Microsoft did to TomTom in Europe using its now-maligned software patents (which probably should never have been granted in the first place).

In the next part we are going to look at other key (high-profile) members of the I.U. We won't delve into their personal lives; that's what the I.U. does to its victims and we won't descend down to its rather shameful levels.

The photo of Florian Andres was taken at demonstrations in a public space in front of the main EPO building in Munich and has been pixellated in order to obscure other persons present.

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
 
Noteworthy Claim That IBM is Firing a Lot of Lawyers This Week (RAs in the Legal Department)
A lot of what they do is patent 'trolling' or lawyering up against their own staff (e.g. HR disputes)
Links 10/10/2025: US Judge Bars Attacks by ICE On Journalists and Protesters; “We Took The Freedom of Speech Away” Says the President
Links for the day
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