Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPSU Explains Why SUEPO Fights for More Than Just EPO Employees and for Rights of Workers at International Institutions

Summary: A roundup of the latest coverage regarding the Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) and some bits about the UPC, which makes Europe a lot more vulnerable to multinational patent aggressors

THE EPO was disrupted yesterday. It was nearly half empty. This morning (just a couple of hours ago) SUEPO stated that a "letter of support [was sent] from EPSU to the Staff Union of the European Patent Office" and that "The European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) represents more than 265 unions. This week, its General Secretary Jan Willem Goudriaan sent a letter of solidarity to SUEPO, whose members take industrial action on Thursday 7 April."



Here is the original letter. dated yesterday:

This week, General Secretary Jan Willem Goudriaan sent a letter of solidarity to SUEPO (Staff Union of the European Patent Office (EPO), whose members take industrial action on Thursday 7 April.

The letter reads:

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to send you solidarity greetings from EPSU for your action on 7 April. We hope that the strike is solidly supported across all the European Patent Office sites. We have been following the dispute and keeping our affiliates informed (www.epsu.org/a/11984).

A victory in this dispute will be important not just for EPO employees and the two trade union representatives who were dismissed in January but will have broader implications in terms of social dialogue and collective bargaining rights in international institutions. It is a matter of major concern that the EPO management has been arguing that European and international rights do not apply to bodies like the EPO. A successful outcome for SUEPO will send a clear message that employees in international institutions will not be denied these rights.

Yours,

Jan Willem Goudriaan, EPSU General Secretary


In addition to articles we've mentioned before about the strike, there was more press coverage about this strike. Battistelli is away right now; he's busy trying to mess up the British system with the UPC. This morning we found British patent lawyers saying: "The launch of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) is imminent."

"It doesn't look too good for Battistelli's plan, or so-called 'reforms' which include treating staff like prisoners, making it easier for large corporations (not European) to sue all over Europe, and so on."That's utter nonsense. Self-fulfilling prophecies such as these are an attempt to make the UPC a reality by just repeatedly stating that it's inevitable, never mind a potential British exit from the EU, a major EPO overhaul, and sacking of Battistelli, who has been a UPC mastermind for at least 6 years.

EPO examiners, not just judges, board (of appeal) members etc. should recognise that the UPC is dangerous to them (both as workers and as European citizens). Regarding the EPO strike, one comment (only a single comment was posted) suggests sacking half the staff (basically a Battistelli purge). To quote: "sack the lazy feckers, the rest can then actually start doing some work. To be honest we'd be better off without them - just make the national patent office harmonise policies instead" (harmonisation is an old byword for UPC).

It doesn't look too good for Battistelli's plan, or so-called 'reforms' which include treating staff like prisoners, making it easier for large corporations (not European) to sue all over Europe, and so on. It's basically a corporate coup, and Battistelli views himself as the master of ceremony.

Gurry, judging by this new article, hasn't resigned yet. Remember how he and Battistelli competed for the same job (at WIPO) and consider how they both ended up attacking whistleblowers and even causing suicides. Apparently some dead people are the price of the "better good" for Republicans like Battistelli (just like in Iraq). They know what's better for everyone else and no disagreement will be tolerated.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Always Check Your Inputs
Garbage in, garbage out. Or wrong assumptions, wrong corollary.
 
Unable to Find Anyone to Work as Their Media Lawyer, Brett Wilson LLP Will Continue Losing Female Staff
What sort of sick person would wish to join Brett Wilson LLP to carry this baton?
Microsoft-Sponsored Propaganda Site Has Removed False 'Hit Piece' About Dr. Stallman (With Fake and Misrepresented Imagery) But Only After 4 Years
So they only removed that page some time around 2025, i.e. about 4 years after it had been published
Dan Neidle Said That Tax Evasion Facilitator Mr Zahawi (Working to Silence Bloggers Through Brett Wilson LLP) Targeted Not Only Him (But The Others Kept Quiet)
"Mr Neidle said after repelling Mr Zahawi he was contacted by bloggers and tweeters who had received similar threats. They deleted their work “and in most cases never commented publicly on anything again”."
SLAPP Funding Transparency Urgently Needed in the UK and Elsewhere (in Practice, Not Just in Theory)
Writing about crime - including Microsoft crime - is not a crime
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 09, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 09, 2025
Elodie Bergot Still Doing Illegal Things at the EPO, Based on the Local Staff Committee Munich
They keep taking away from the staff while compelling the staff to do illegal things
Gemini Links 09/07/2025: Extreme Testing and Golang Documentation in Geminispace
Links for the day
Vice President of the European Patent Office (EPO) Complains That Techrights Gives Visibility to Legal and Technical Issues at the EPO
"Follow-up on enquiries relating to Dir. 1218 and 1001"
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com and Various Slopfarms That Lie About "Linux" and Are Promoted by Google News
Google does not seem interested in tackling this problem
Links 09/07/2025: War Updates and Microsoft Moving to India to Cut Costs
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Was Always a 'Movement' of Inclusion of Tolerance
Even the licences themselves remove access barriers
Links 09/07/2025: "Subprime AI Crisis" and "OpenAI May Be in Major Trouble Financially"
Links for the day
Huge Piles of Legal Papers ('Paper DDoS') Do Not Impress Judges and Regulators
they just make judges and regulators even more suspicious of the eagerness to resort to 'paper DDoS'
Brett Wilson LLP Sent Over 5 Kilograms (or Over 12 Pounds) of Legal Papers! Because Writing About Microsoft Abuses is 'Illegal'.
How do you guys sleep at night? On a big pile of Microsoft money?
Extremism as a Weapon Against GNU/Linux (Microsoft Lunduke)
He ought to know the Halloween Documents. Wasn't he a Microsoft employee when these came out?
Lunduke Isn't Even Hiding His Anti-Linux Agenda (From "Linux Sucks" to "Linux is Pedophiles")
just trying to make a lot of trouble
Some People Use Computers to Get Actual Work Done
Tolerance and inclusion must extend to acceptance that some people don't agree with you, might never agree with you, and imposing what allegedly works for you on them is unreasonable
Example of "Old" Things That Still Work
The notion that something being "old" implies it must be discarded is typically advanced by those looking to sell more of something
Some Scheduled Maintenance Later Today
Typically the most vulnerable service during short interruptions is IRC
Computers Are Just a Tool
People don't get married because they love weddings, folks don't join the army because they love war, and most drivers don't drive to work because they love cars
Apple Way Past Its Prime
Apple deserves a decline
The FSF's SysOps Team Recovered From Serious Hardware Issue Within Hours
About half a day ago I noticed that all/most GNU/FSF sites were not reachable and thus reached out to a contact for any details
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 08, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 08, 2025
Slopwatch: Turning Bugs Into FUD About "Linux", Getting Basic Facts Wrong
all the screenshots are of fake articles; we don't want to link to any
Technical Reasons, Not Politics: With Wayland "it feels a lot like Linux from 20-25 years ago, which is horrendously frustrating, because it feels like we wasted one or two decades of progress and stability"
Lately, quite a few benchmarks were published to show Wayland compares poorly compared to what we had
PCLinuxOS Recovering From Fire
It looks like a nightmare scenario, where even backups onsite get destroyed
Links 09/07/2025: More Heatwaves, Officials Culled in Russia
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/07/2025: XScreensaver and Resurrection
Links for the day
Links 08/07/2025: "Cyberattack Deals Blow to Russian Firmware" and "Cash Remains King"
Links for the day
FSF40 T-shirt message
by Alex Oliva
Gemini Links 08/07/2025: Creativity, Gotify with NUT Server, and Sudo Bugs
Links for the day
More on "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
"pepe the frogs"
Links 08/07/2025: Sabotage of Networking Infrastructure, Microsoft XBox Game Pass Deemed “Unsustainable”
Links for the day
Dalai Lama Succession as Evidence That Determined, Motivated People Can Reach Their Nineties
And we need to quit talking about their death all the time
Many Lawyers (for Microsoft) and 1,316 Pages to Pick on a Litigant in Person Who Exposed Serious Microsoft Abuses
Answers must be given
Gemini Links 08/07/2025: Ancillary Justice and Small Web July
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 07, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 07, 2025