12.01.15
Posted in Europe, Patents at 10:12 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
It’s “All Out War” at EPO
Summary: The EPO is crushing unions pretty hard right now, but at the same time it spends around $80,000 per month fighting against critics and manipulating the media, as a recently-leaked EPO/Administrative Council (AC) document serves to prove
THE picture above is a screenshot of the original [PDF] (not at risk of censorship by the EPO, unlike SUEPO, so no local copy has been made here). It is self-explanatory and it states (in text):
Labour dispute at European Patent Office
Dear Colleagues,
We regret to inform you that three Staff Representatives have been suspended at the European Patent Office last Tuesday, 17 November 2015. The (EPO) has the privilege of setting their own rules independent of national framework, which in the absence of adequate checks and balances leads to many abuses. The (EPO) has been suffering from a wave of suicides in recent years and the social tensions are very high (see reports of the French newspaper Le Monde, attached).
Staff Representatives have to be protected from retaliating actions so that they can accomplish their function, which is to bring more balance to power.
With this e-mail to all staff in Brussels, we aim to foster awareness of these events and contribute to have them satisfactorily addressed.
With kind regards,
Union Syndicale Brussels
Additional information can be found here :
http://www.fosspatents.com/2015/11/epo-labor-dispute-getting-completely.html
http://www.worldipreview.com/news/epo-suspends-more-staff-claims-threats-of-
violence-9187
http://www.pyleborgn.eu/2015/11/courrier-a-emmanuel-macron-sur-la-crise-a-
loffice-europeen-des-brevets/ (French MP ́s letter to the French Minister of
Economy and Finance)
http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2015/04/06/un-si-bon-office_4610059_3232.html
http://www.suepo.org/public/ex15152cp.pdf
So who is Union Syndicale Brussels? SUEPO says that “Union Syndicale Brussels (USB) is the biggest trade union in the European Public Service. Its members are drawn from all the European institutions and organisations. It has sections for the European Commission, the EU Council, the European Parliament, Eurocontrol etc. Founded in 1973, it was set up to defend the unique status of officials of the European Communities.”
“Techrights too has experienced legal bullying, despite the EPO having no authority over Techrights (none of us is an EPO employee).”To quote USB: “Staff Representatives have to be protected from retaliating actions so that they can accomplish their function, which is to bring more balance to power.”
Techrights too has experienced legal bullying, despite the EPO having no authority over Techrights (none of us is an EPO employee).
“Union Syndicale Brussels has published a message of solidarity,” SUEPO explained earlier today, “for our three suspended colleagues and initiated the distribution of this message to the entire staff of the above European institutions and organisations – more than 50,000 employees.”
“A million bucks to shut up critics? Wow…”
–AnonymousTechrights is happy to support the actions or the messages of SUEPO. It has been disturbing and increasingly troubling to see what EPO management can get away with in Munich. People are either in disbelief or they just know nothing about it. Thankfully, in the coming days, a lot of the large press in the UK will shed light on these issues. Articles in English are also readable outside of Europe. And speaking of which, here is a new article in Portuguese (we need a translation as potential readers are only Portuguese or from former Portuguese colonies). We also welcome more leaks, especially those showing misconduct or bad conduct, rendering any leaker a whistleblower (who enjoys special protections, enshrined in law).
Regarding the EPO/AC document leaked the other day, one reader wrote to tell us: “My jaw just can’t drop anymore, it’s now stuck to the floor.
“A million bucks to shut up critics? Wow…”
“Expect agents provocateurs, industrial strength astroturfing, etc.”
–AnonymousLook at the original document. It names this as “support of Directorate for External Communications.” That’s probably alluding to Director of External Communications Jana Mittermaier, who helped Siemens restore their 'normal' public image or at least save face after their massive bribery scandal.
Remember what Bank of America (BoA) did right after it had discovered that material from the bank got leaked to Wikileaks? The authors and volunteers at Wikileaks wrote a great deal about it at the time. There was sabotage. See articles such as “Bank of America Employing Three Intelligence Firms to Dismantle WikiLeaks, Anonymous Responds With Hacks“.
“I sincerely hope you have a contingency plan should they try to steal or subpoena your computers.”
–AnonymousFor Bank of America, money wasn’t the issue. At EPO too, budget is a bottomless pit. They think they can just pay (not their own money because it’s a European public service) to achieve anything they want, even after erring, abusing the law, etc.
Our reader continued pessimistically: “Expect agents provocateurs, industrial strength astroturfing, etc.
“Or for that money, they could also attempt to buy opponents.
“I sincerely hope you have a contingency plan should they try to steal or subpoena your computers.”
Well, I have backups remotely stored — physically — at safe places, but in order to protect sources I never remove my laptop from my house. This is probably known to those who follow me in social media sites (like Twitter); airports and other such places are now checkpoints for digital data (encryption does not help as they can compel the traveler to decrypt everything or face serious trouble).
“The minister of justice tried to shut up a group of Internet activists and critics who had the tendency to present very interesting stuff that was leaked, or even legally obtained using FOI laws!”
–AnonymousGiven the appealing treatment that the suspended judge and staff representatives have been subjected to (military-grade interrogations and de facto raids), we must prepare for the worst. The legal bullying was a serious escalation in tactics, only months after the EPO had blocked this site.
Our reader added: “Have you heard of the Netzpolitik.org affair in Germany? The minister of justice tried to shut up a group of Internet activists and critics who had the tendency to present very interesting stuff that was leaked, or even legally obtained using FOI laws!
“If not, you might do well to look into this, as I see parallels.
“The AG tried to shut them up by using an A-bomb: TREASON LAW!
“Heiko Maas, the German minister of justice, who also happens to be the one ultimately responsible for the EPO in his country, made a bloody fool out of himself.”
–Anonymous“That caused a general uproar.
“You should perhaps get in touch with them, with the magnitude reached by this business, I think you need all the publicity you can get.
“Heiko Maas, the German minister of justice, who also happens to be the one ultimately responsible for the EPO in his country, made a bloody fool out of himself.”
“Recall what the ‘British Blackwater’, CRG, has been up to here, not just spying on sources of Techrights but also on Techrights itself.”Well, some people have already been mirroring Techrights in other relatively censorship-resistant sites and services. It makes silencing efforts rather futile, but maybe not impossible. Over the course of the past few months we suspect that even censorship at DNS (or ICANN) level was attempted, for reasons we specified here (in passing) a few times before. Without some recognition/status, knowhow (e.g. when it comes to system administration or combating DDOS attack), and supportive media coverage, we would have struggled to keep posting new information as we habitually do. Some people in positions of power really don’t like this Web site and would go as far as they conceivably can to derail operation. Recall what the ‘British Blackwater’, CRG, has been up to here, not just spying on sources of Techrights but also on Techrights itself. We mentioned that in posts such as:
We kindly ask readers to do what they can to also protect our right to free speech and our right to speak without an atmosphere of terror, which includes intimidation from lawyers, spying by goons who work with the Army, and incredible accusations against yours truly. Yes, the ad hominem attacks have already begun and maybe it’s no coincidence that right now the EPO has nearly a million dollars working on reputation laundering, which may include discrediting critics (at a budget of around $80,000 per month). The BBC is going to publish an important article, possibly tomorrow. █
“A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.”
–Robert Frost
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 9:02 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: An EPO-related scandal in Spain is explained, or new light is shed on what some belated research serves to show, revealing a continued atmosphere of nepotism and family connections
READERS have contacted us after the first part about an old article from 2011. They wanted to say more. Various sources of ours, who are very much familiar with Spanish politics and some of these old affairs, may help make this series a long one. We don’t quite know how deep it really goes, but today, in this second part of the series, we are going to advance to the story’s relation to the EPO, which recently contracted external PR people to help improve the image of the EPO (hence the picture above).
“Someone who is quite fluent at Spanish looked at this for us.”Based on information that we received from Spain and another reference we’ve found online (and later on we saw in a recent comment at IP kat), the Spanish community is gradually starting to realise just how rotten the EPO really is. This leads to further investigation by Spanish journalists who are familiar with Spanish politics and can educate us regarding historical context.
El Confidencial is an online centre-right and liberal periodical, according to the Spanish language Wikipedia. The title of their article is “LOS SINDICATOS DENUNCIAN UN CLIMA DE TERROR – Suicidios, espionaje, nepotismo… La Oficina Europea de Patentes es un polvorín” (which roughly translates into English as “The trade unions denounce a climate of terror — suicides, spying, nepotism… The European Patent Office is a powder keg”).
“It’s reminiscent of the story of Bergot at EPO.”Someone who is quite fluent at Spanish looked at this for us. “There isn’t really much original in there,” said the person, “but I did learn something I wasn’t previously aware of near the end of the article, and would constitute, in my humble opinion, a very juicy morsel for Techrights.”
The juicy morsel is as follows: “Battistelli, de hecho, fue nombrado doctor honoris causa por la Universidad Menéndez Pelayo en julio de 2014. El representante español en la OEP es Alberto Casado, elegido vicepresidente por cinco años en 2012 y anterior director general de la Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas. La actual directora general es Patricia García-Escudero, hermana del presidente del Senado, que llegó al cargo tras un polémico nombramiento. Fue elegida sin que se agotaran los plazos administrativos.”
“In English,” the person told us, “the first sentence referring to Battistelli’s vanity title [last year in Spain] isn’t that interesting, but the story improves considerably afterward.”
This paragraph says that the Spanish EPO Vice-President, Alberto Casado Cerviño, who was elected Vice-President in 2012 for a five-year mandate, was previously in charge of the Spanish equivalent. The present person in charge is Patricia García-Escudero, whom we wrote about in part one. It’s reminiscent of the story of Bergot at EPO. See part one, part two, part three, and part four of “EPO: It’s Like a Family Business“.
“…the first sentence referring to Battistelli’s vanity title [last year in Spain] isn’t that interesting, but the story improves considerably afterward.”
–AnonymousGarcía-Escudero took charge amidst a controversy surrounding her appointment. She was selected while the administrative period for applications was still running. Alberto Casado Cerviño appointed her and some believe that this was done for political reasons. The original text contains this link to a 2011 article by the same publication. We provided a translation of it in part one. █
Update: As of the time of writing, SUEPO made a translation into English [PDF] publicly available. In HTML form (richer formatting and hyperlinks can be found in the corresponding PDF):
UNIONS DENOUNCE AN ATMOSPHERE OF TERROR
Suicides, espionage, nepotism… The European Patent Office is a powder keg
The unions claim that an atmosphere of terror has been created at the European Patent Office, which has brought about suicides, sick leave, and repression. The scandal has reached the level of Government itself.
Benoît Battistelli, President of the European Patent Office. (EPO)
Carlos Sánchez
Reading time 6 min
26.11.2015 – 05:00 H.
Florian Mueller, a world authority on the granting of patents, says: “The most recent information we’re getting describes a situation that would be inconceivable anywhere in the civilized world, but then the European Patent Organization, quite simply, is not a part of the civilized world”. It has even been said that the Office today is the last dictatorship on European soil.
So what is Mueller, a German, talking about? Nothing more and nothing less than the fact that an atmosphere of panic at work and psychological terror has been created among many of the 7,000 or so employees of the European Patent Office (EPO). Union representatives claim that in the past few years at least five suicides have occurred (one employee jumped out of the window in July 2013 at the office in The Hague), and many others have been suffering from enormous psychological pressure, resulting in patents being granted without their technical quality being properly verified.
The important thing, according to the sources, is productivity, even though some patents have subsequently been invalidated. There are accusations, backed up by internal documents from the Patent Office itself, which reveal that a number of big corporations are benefiting from preferential treatment over small companies when it comes to the examination procedures.
Some 2,000 employees recently took to the streets of Munich to demonstrate against the management of the President and the executive team.
The latest incident happened on 13 November, a Friday, when two employees, one of them Spanish, Jesús Areso, and the other French, Laurent Prunier, were summoned to make statements at the Office at The Hague before the EPO Investigation Unit sent by the President, Frenchman Benoît Battistelli. The union SUEPO , which represents the employees at the Patent Office, claims that after these interrogations, which had a clearly intimidating purpose, both the people concerned had to be taken to hospital as emergency cases. One of them had suffered a major nervous attack, and the other, for similar reasons, had to be admitted. Prunier continues to be on sick leave.
And there is more. Some staff members have been suspended from work, and others have laid claims before the courts about the persecution which they are suffering. At least three staff
representatives have been suspended in Munich, Elisabeth Hardon, Ion Bromme and M. Weaver, and others at The Hague. The parliamentary deputy for French citizens abroad, Socialist Pierre-Yves Le Borgn’, has demanded public explanations from the President of the EPO with regard to the climate of repression, and has made official representations to the French Minister of the Economy, Emmanuele Macron, in letters on the matter.
Malpractice
Le Borgn’ claims in his letter that intense interrogations have been carried out with “unusual violence”, which have left some employees in a state of ‘shock’ and resulted in their needing medical treatment. Neither human rights nor labour laws can be allowed to remain outside the headquarters of the European Patent Office, the high-ranking Frenchman says in his letter, and demands that the member countries condemn these practices.
Some officials have been suspended from their duties, and others have laid claims before the courts about the persecution which they are suffering at work.
The situation has reached extremes that are unheard of in this type of international institution, where officials from many different countries work, with very different cultures. Some 2,000 employees recently took to the streets in of Munich to demonstrate against the President, who is, incidentally, supported by Spain, and his executive team, whom they accuse of nepotism and irregularities involving the buying of votes. Essentially, as a source who prefers to remain anonymous points out, the vote of a representative from Albania or Georgia counts the same as that of Germany, which makes it easy for the people concerned to be compromised in the form of travel, expenses, medical services, or “extra-ordinary” income. Something which finds an echo in events at FIFA, in the decision-making process, where countries with little resources are complaining about decisions taken with money being exchanged.
The scandal has spilled onto the pages of a number of big European newspapers, and the German Commission for Data Protection has demanded that the European Patent Office respect the rights of its employees. The Dutch press, too, maintains that a reign of terror has been established in the EPO, to deal with personnel who voice dissention about the arbitrary decisions being taken by their superiors.
Nazi propaganda
The President of the EPO, Benoît Battistelli, rejects these accusations, and in a letter to the French Minister of the Economy he attributes the incidents to the staff representatives
themselves, and to a “campaign of defamation” against him personally. He also says that a senior functionary of the EPO was suspended from his position because he had been involved in the leaking of confidential documents, as well as having kept weapons and Nazi propaganda in his office.
A number of members of the European Parliament have taken an interest in the atmosphere of panic at work which has invaded the EPO, surrounding, according to the unions, the French functionaries close to the President, who form his “Praetorian Guard”. A complaint has gone as far as Strasbourg that a number of computers with public access have been fitted with cameras and spyware in order to record what employees are writing. The EPO has also been accused on a number of occasions of not maintaining a sufficiently independent board of appeal. This is the body before which appeals are presented against decisions by the patent organization itself.
A number of Euro MP’s have shown an interest in the matter. (EPO)
The Office is an organization of an international nature, created under the auspices of the European Patent Convention of 1973, which propagates its own conditions of work and maintains centres in Munich, The Hague, Berlin, and Vienna. The member states are all the members of the European Union (EU), plus a number of other European countries (Switzerland, Norway, Turkey, Albania, or Georgia), and since 2010 it has been directed by Frenchman Batistteli, who is at the eye of the hurricane, and who enjoys the backing of Spain.
Batistteli was in fact been bestowed with the title of doctor honoris causa by Menéndez Pelayo University in July 2014. The Spanish representative at the EPO is Alberto Casado, elected as vice-president for five years in 2012, and former director general of the European Patent and Trademark Office. The current director general is Patricia García-Escudero, sister of the president of the Senate, who acceded to the position amid some controversy over the appointment. She was appointed without having served other administrative terms.
As the German press maintains, the problem is that the European Patent Office is a state within the State, which functions with its own laws. The President, according to the Statutes, is availed of wide powers, and the only body which can exert legal supervision over him is the Administrative Council, on which 38 member states are represented. Accordingly, the court rulings which apply in the Netherlands or Germany cannot be imposed on the EPO. In the words of someone who knows the organization well from the inside, the EPO “has set itself outside any control”.
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Posted in Europe, Patents at 10:36 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Photo via Wikipedia
Summary: Some of the latest material to and from French MP Le Borgn’, who is being informed by EPO staff representatives rather than lectured by Benoît Battistelli, with convenient references to Battistelli’s ‘media partner’ in France
ABOUT a week ago we wrote about the latest actions from Pierre-Yves Le Borgn’, who is genuinely concerned about the EPO scandals (he has been active in this area for a while). Some sources of ours try to frame it as political opportunism and partisanship, but whatever the motivations, the outcome would help not only French nationals. There are now some new developments as SUEPO sent new comments regarding the letter of the EPO’s President to Pierre-Yves Le Borgn’.
As SUEPO put it yesterday: “In an apparent effort to put a positive “spin” on his position, Mr Battistelli’s letter (translation in English) can at best be described as being economical with the truth. In an effort to put the record straight, SUEPO Central establishes in a paper the facts that will clearly refute a mere selection of his more amazing statements.” (see the remainder in the paper below)
“A new document was published on the blog of French MP Le Borgn’,” a reader told us. “It is a strongly worded point-by-point rebuttal by SUEPO to Battistelli’s letter, as well as a summary of his misdeeds.
“Hopefully an English translation will be coming on SUEPO’s web site,” this reader told us. This person definitely does not work at the EPO, but the world is watching and more people get involved over time. This morning I spoke with a journalist from the BBC, so expect coverage there too. Also see this new article from LabourNet Germany. English language articles too are being spread right now, in the biggest technology-centric British media (e.g. The Register last night).
Here are all the relevant documents journalists should be aware of:
The PDFs above are mirrored because of a history of EPO censorship against SUEPO's Web site. There is some English in these documents, as quoted below:
Comments on letter of President Battistelli to Pierre-Yves Le Borgn’ dated 20.11.2015
In an apparent effort to put a positive “spin” on his position, Mr Battistelli’s letter (translation in English) can at best be described as being economical with the truth. In an effort to put the record straight, we establish the facts that will clearly refute a mere selection of his more amazing statements.
Part 1: Allegations of harassment amongst staff representatives
The second paragraph is a key part of the letter, wherein it mentions six resignations from the staff representation. One particular case in The Hague is attributed to a “campaign of harassment”. It is later implied that all elected staff representatives who either were not SUEPO members or who express opinions contrary to the union have left the staff representation. In the context of a response to Mr Le Borgn’s reaction to the news of the suspension of three staff representatives in Munich, the President seems to suggest that these “facts” alone justify all the suspensions.
The truth is:
1. Of the three suspended staff representatives, two are accused of an alleged misconduct that is totally unrelated either to resignations in the staff representation, or to harassment of staff representatives.
Evidence: first pages of the reports setting out the reasons for the disciplinary procedures against two of the three suspended colleagues.
2. The initial accusation of harassment raised against the third staff representative who has been suspended has not been maintained in the disciplinary procedure. The same elected official is now accused of allegedly harassing other colleagues, this time in Munich. Yet none of these purportedly “harassed” colleagues has actually filed an individual complaint.
Evidence: first page of the report setting out the reasons for the disciplinary procedures against the third suspended colleague
3. Two colleagues elected since the introduction of Social Democracy to the local staff committee in Munich have resigned. These colleagues were both “SUEPO candidates” who resigned primarily or exclusively because they received threatening letters sent by the President and/or Ms Bergot. Moreover, two other colleagues in Munich who were not “SUEPO candidates” are still active, i.e. they have not resigned. There is a similar situation in The Hague. In other words, there is no simple one-to-one correlation between being “SUEPO candidates” or not and these resignations, as is suggested by Mr Battistelli.
Evidence: The colleagues who resigned from the Staff Representation are all in a position to confirm this.
4. It is important to note that apparently none of the alleged victims has filed an individual complaint. The investigation into the alleged harassment by one colleague which was later expanded to embrace other staff representatives seems to be solely based upon a complaint filed by Ms Bergot, Principal Director HR. Even if acting on the harassed party’s behalf, Ms Bergot has a rather blatant conflict of interest.
Evidence: first page of the report of Control Risks on the third colleague.
Conclusions:
a) The second paragraph of Mr Battistelli’s letter grossly misrepresents the basic facts and may lead the reader to draw the wrong conclusions.
b) The accusations against all three suspended staff representatives are both vexatious and absurd:
- A public comment on the allegations that form the basis of the cases against two of the three suspended staff representatives, ridiculing the Office, can be found here: http://ipkitten.blogspot.de/2015/10/epo-bids-to-save-litigating-employees.html
- Public comments on the specific case against the third colleague can be found here: http://ipkitten.blogspot.de/2015/10/when-harassment-gains-new-meaning-epo.html
- Public comments on the suspensions in general can be found here: http://ipkitten.blogspot.de/2015/11/eponia-land-of-suspense-and-suspensions.html
Note that IPKat blog, although often humorous, is a highly respected and influential, independent IP blog, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPKat
Part 2: Allegations against the suspended member of the Boards of Appeal
Paragraph 3 on the second page simply repeats allegations against the suspended Boards of Appeal member that were apparently raised by the Investigative Unit. Amongst these are “storing weapons and Nazi propaganda”.
Even should such allegations eventually be found to be true, then the President of the EPO’s action publicly commenting on a pending procedure would represent:
(a) a serious breach of confidentiality,
(b) an offense against the presumption of innocence,
(c) an unacceptable interference with an on-going procedure,
(d) and a potential case of him defaming our suspended colleague
The President should, however, have known that the Enlarged Board of Appeal had already dismissed the case because the accusations were too generic and unsupported by a detailed correlation to any evidence available that would allow the accused to defend himself adequately and have allowed the EBoA to assess the case in accordance with proper judicial standards.
Evidence: Decision of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of 17 Sept. 2015 (the reasoning of which was only published recently), pages 24, 25 and 33.
Conclusions:
a) Under such circumstances, it is incomprehensible that the President of the EPO continues to publicly accuse the suspended Board member in such an outrageous and misleading manner.
b) As always, the comments of IPKat on this topic are worth reading: http://ipkitten.blogspot.de/2015/11/why-enlarged-board-rejected-ac-in.html
Part 3: Remaining parts of the letter
The remaining parts of the letter are of a comparable level. What is particularly striking is the contrast between the noble principles and intentions expressed by Mr Battistelli and the reality.
The question arises as to why Mr Battistelli insists on making statements that are so readily refuted: whether it proves to be deliberate or just defiant, only time will tell.
It is worth noting that for ‘evidence’ (in the original letter), Battistelli cited his own ‘media partner’, Les Échos [1, 2, 3, 4]. There is a huge budget for this kind of propaganda right now. The management of the EPO wages a war on truth itself. It’s a losing battle, but there will be victims, including — potentially — casualties of suicide.
See below for more context. That’s Pierre-Yves Le Borgn’ speaking in French about the EPO. █
Translation of the video below can be found here.
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