04.05.21

Gemini version available ♊︎

EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag — Part 7: Ms Voßhoff Alerts the Bundestag…

Posted in Europe, Patents at 4:19 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Series index:

  1. The EPO Bundestagate — Part 1: How the Bundestag Was (and Continues to be) Misled About EPO Affairs
  2. The EPO Bundestagate — Part 2: Lack of Parliamentary Oversight, Many Questions and Few Answers…
  3. The EPO Bundestagate — Part 3: A “Minor Interpellation” in the German Bundestag
  4. The EPO Bundestagate — Part 4: Parroting the GDPR-Compliance Myth
  5. The EPO Bundestagate — Part 5: The Federal Eagle’s Disconcerting Metamorphosis
  6. EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag — Part 6: Dr Petri Starts the Ball Rolling…
  7. You are here ☞ Ms Voßhoff Alerts the Bundestag…

Federal Data Protection Commissioner

Summary: In July 2015, the Federal Data Protection Commissioner notified the Bundestag of her concerns

As is well known, the EPO made headlines in Germany in June 2015 following revelations about covert surveillance conducted by the Benoît Battistelli‘s notorious "Investigative Unit" which was reported to have deployed hidden cameras and key loggers in a manner that would have been illegal under EU and national data protection law in Germany.

Media reports about the EPO spy-scandal persuaded Ms Voßhoff to dust off the EPO file and renew her efforts to have this rogue organisation called to account by the Federal German authorities.

“Media reports about the EPO spy-scandal persuaded Ms Voßhoff to dust off the EPO file and renew her efforts to have this rogue organisation called to account by the Federal German authorities.”In July 2015, Ms Voßhoff proceeded to write to Ms Renate Kunast, the Chairperson of the Legal Affairs Committee of the German Federal Parliament (the “Bundestag”) to bring her concerns to the attention of German parliamentarians.

The text of Ms Voßhoff’s letter [PDF] reads as follows (in translation):

I was made aware of the issue of the lack of independent external data protection supervision of the European Patent Office (EPO) by the Bavarian State Commissioner for Data Protection.

My efforts to improve data protection supervision at the EPO have so far been have so far been unsuccessful.

I would therefore like to draw the attention of the German Bundestag to the problem.

The European Patent Office is an organ of the European Patent Organisation (EPO) established by the European Patent Convention (EPC) and endowed with legal personality. It is therefore a supranational institution based on an international treaty with its headquarters in Munich and offices in The Hague, Berlin, Vienna and Brussels. Vienna and Brussels with about 6,800 employees. The contracting states are 38 European countries, including all EU member states.

The legal nature of the EPO means that there is no data protection supervision by an independent external body. Neither the Bavarian State Commissioner for Data Protection nor I can derive any competence from state or federal data protection law. The EPO is neither a public body of the State of Bavaria nor of the Federal Republic of Germany. The European Data Protection Supervisor is also ruled out as an independent supervisory body, as the EPO is neither an institution nor a body of the European Union.

Even if, according to the EPO’s internal data protection officer, internal data protection regulations have been in place at the EPO since 1992, in particular based on the Data Protection Directive 95/46 EC, a lack of independent external data protection supervision is also taken as given from the EPO perspective.

In the interest of safeguarding the data protection rights of those affected, I have contacted the responsible Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) with the request to examine measures to close this supervisory and oversight gap, for example by means of a corresponding amendment to the EPC.

The BMJV has not yet taken up this suggestion. It refers to the necessity of a diplomatic conference of all 38 contracting states of the EPC for such an institutional reform of the EPC. This time-consuming procedure would not permit an amendment in the short term.

However, the Federal Ministry of Justice gives an assurance that it will continue to advocate, within the scope of its possibilities, compliance with and further development of high data protection standards and an independent data protection structure in its committee work within the EPO.

Although I have some understanding for the BMJV’s position, the permanent absence of an independent external supervisory authority for data protection matters nevertheless poses a risk – that should not be underestimated – to the fundamental right to informational self-determination of the persons concerned given the processing of a large amount of personal data of applicants and staff at the EPO.

This risk is rendered apparent by a case that has now received press coverage. In an article dated 8 June 2015 (see attachment), the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported allegations that two publicly accessible computers at the EPO were placed under surveillance with so-called keyloggers and video cameras without the persons concerned being informed. Due to the current legal situation, no independent data protection supervisory authority can investigate these allegations.

Moreover, those potentially affected, in particular members of the Administrative Council, patent attorneys, employees and visitors to the EPO, lack any possibility of turning to an independent body capable of enforcing their rights to informational self-determination.

In view of the prevailing factual and legal situation, I would be grateful if the Legal Affairs Committee would address the issue in a supportive manner.

The Legal Affairs Committee of the Bundestag reacted to Ms Voßhoff’s letter by placing the matter on its agenda for a meeting scheduled to take place in October 2015 [PDF].

It seemed that the Legal Affairs Committee was gearing up to investigate the worrying “supervisory and oversight gap” identified by Ms Voßhoff.

“As far as can be determined from the available evidence, the authors of this intrigue were the duplicitous Tweedledum and Tweedledee duo of the EPO‑Federal Justice Ministry nexus, Raimund Lutz and Christoph Ernst.”However, as we shall see in due course, Ms Voßhoff’s efforts to have the deficiencies in the EPO’s data protection framework subjected to meaningful parliamentary scrutiny were derailed by what appears to have been a nefarious behind-the-scenes intrigue.

As far as can be determined from the available evidence, the authors of this intrigue were the duplicitous Tweedledum and Tweedledee duo of the EPO‑Federal Justice Ministry nexus, Raimund Lutz and Christoph Ernst.

Before delving into the details of the intrigue which derailed Ms Voßhoff’s initiative, we will make a detour to look more closely at these two individuals and their respective roles in EPO affairs over the last two decades.

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Reddit
  • email

Decor ᶃ Gemini Space

Below is a Web proxy. We recommend getting a Gemini client/browser.

Black/white/grey bullet button This post is also available in Gemini over at this address (requires a Gemini client/browser to open).

Decor ✐ Cross-references

Black/white/grey bullet button Pages that cross-reference this one, if any exist, are listed below or will be listed below over time.

Decor ▢ Respond and Discuss

Black/white/grey bullet button If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

DecorWhat Else is New


  1. Links 03/06/2023: Apache NetBeans 18 and ArcaOS 5.0.8

    Links for the day



  2. IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 02, 2023

    IRC logs for Friday, June 02, 2023



  3. The Developing World Abandons Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux at All-Time Highs on Desktops/Laptops

    Microsoft, with 80 billion dollars in longterm debt and endless layoffs, is losing the monopolies; the media doesn’t mention this, but some publicly-accessible data helps demonstrate that



  4. Links 02/06/2023: Elive ‘Retrowave’ Stable and Microsoft's Half a Billion Dollar Fine for LinkeIn Surveillance in Europe

    Links for the day



  5. Linux Foundation 'Research' Has a New Report and Of Course It Uses Only Proprietary Software

    The Linux Foundation has a new report, promoted by Clickfraud Spamnil and others; of course they’re rejecting Free software, they’re just riding the “Linux” brand and speak of “Open Source” (which they reject themselves)



  6. Links 02/06/2023: Arti 1.1.5 and SQL:2023

    Links for the day



  7. Gemini Links 02/06/2023: Vimwiki Revisited, SGGS Revisited

    Links for the day



  8. Geminispace/GemText/Gemini Protocol Turn 4 on June 20th

    Gemini is turning 4 this month (on the 20th, according to the founder) and I thought I’d do a spontaneous video about how I use Gemini, why it's so good, and why it’s still growing (Stéphane Bortzmeyer fixed the broken cron job — or equivalent of it — a day or two after I had mentioned the issue)



  9. HMRC Does Not Care About Tax Fraud Committed by UK Government Contractor, Sirius 'Open Source'

    The tax crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ were reported to HMRC two weeks ago; HMRC did not bother getting back to the reporters (victims of the crime) and it’s worth noting that the reporters worked on UK government systems for many years, so maybe there’s a hidden incentive to bury this under the rug



  10. Our IRC at 15th Anniversary

    So our IRC community turns 15 today (sort of) and I’ve decided to do a video reflecting on the fact that some of the same people are still there after 15 years



  11. IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 01, 2023

    IRC logs for Thursday, June 01, 2023



  12. Links 02/06/2023: NixOS 23.05 and Rust 1.70.0

    Links for the day



  13. Gemini Links 02/06/2023: Flying High With Gemini and Gogios Released

    Links for the day



  14. Links 01/06/2023: KStars 3.6.5 and VEGA ET1031 RISC-V Microprocessor in Use

    Links for the day



  15. Gemini Links 01/06/2023: Scam Call and Flying High With Gemini

    Links for the day



  16. Links 01/06/2023: Spleen 2.0.0 Released and Team UPC Celebrates Its Own Corruption

    Links for the day



  17. IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 31, 2023

    IRC logs for Wednesday, May 31, 2023



  18. Tux Machines Closing the Door on Twitter Because Twitter is Dead (for a Lot of People)

    Tux Machines recently joined millions of others who had already quit Twitter, including passive posting (fully or partly automated)



  19. Links 31/05/2023: Inkscape’s 1.3 Plans and New ARM Cortex-A55-Based Linux Chip

    Links for the day



  20. Gemini Links 31/05/2023: Personality of Software Engineers

    Links for the day



  21. Links 31/05/2023: Armbian 23.05 Release and Illegal UPC

    Links for the day



  22. IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 30, 2023

    IRC logs for Tuesday, May 30, 2023



  23. Gemini Protocol About to Turn 4 and It's Still Growing

    In the month of May we had zero downtime (no updates to the system or outages in the network), which means Lupa did not detect any errors such as timeouts and we’re on top of the list (the page was fixed a day or so after we wrote about it); Gemini continues to grow (chart by Botond) as we’re approaching the 4th anniversary of the protocol



  24. Links 31/05/2023: Librem Server v2, curl 8.1.2, and Kali Linux 2023.2 Release

    Links for the day



  25. Gemini Links 31/05/2023: Bayes Filter and Programming Wordle

    Links for the day



  26. [Meme] Makes No Sense for EPO (Now Connected to the EU) and Staff Pensions to be Tied to the UK After Brexit

    It seems like EPO staff is starting to have doubts about the safety of EPO pensions after Benoît Battistelli sent money to reckless gambling (EPOTIF) — a plot that’s 100% supported by António Campinos and his enablers in the Council, not to mention the European Union



  27. Working Conditions at EPO Deteriorate and Staff Inquires About Pension Rights

    Work is becoming a lot worse (not even compliant with the law!) and promises are constantly being broken, so staff is starting to chase management for answers and assurances pertaining to finances



  28. Links 30/05/2023: Orc 0.4.34 and Another Rust Crisis

    Links for the day



  29. Links 30/05/2023: Nitrux 2.8.1 and HypoPG 1.4.0

    Links for the day



  30. Gemini Links 30/05/2023: Bubble Version 3.0

    Links for the day


RSS 64x64RSS Feed: subscribe to the RSS feed for regular updates

Home iconSite Wiki: You can improve this site by helping the extension of the site's content

Home iconSite Home: Background about the site and some key features in the front page

Chat iconIRC Channel: Come and chat with us in real time

Recent Posts