Bonum Certa Men Certa

Central Staff Committee of the EPO Reminds the EPO's Management, Yet Again, That It is Breaking Laws

Video download link | md5sum fd3e324afc255b0cdb9fc138073829f0 EPO Does Not Care What the Law Says Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: Sinking quality of European Patents [1, 2], plus a Patent Granting Process that is not compliant with the law, quite likely mean the EPO drives straight into a wall; the Central Staff Committee is still trying to save the institution, but management is uncaring and unresponsive (these people typically serve a term and leave, so they couldn't care less about the long-term viability of their employer)

EARLIER this year the higher-level management of the EPO (Team Campinos) received a letter of concern that people won't find in suepo.org and epo.org, so we're sharing the latest correspondence below.



"Notice that between 10 March 2022 and 4 April 2022 nothing happened. In other words, the super-busy management took 4 weeks to reply."As it turns out, the EPO violates many rules, including EPC rules, and maybe even ILO ruling would be negatively affected. Not to mention EU regulations! This happens not less frequently than in the Benoît Battistelli era. It has probably gotten a lot worse since then. Here's the letter from 4 weeks ago. Notice that between 10 March 2022 and 4 April 2022 nothing happened. In other words, the super-busy management took 4 weeks to reply. Here we go:

Reference: sc22045cl Date: 14.04.2022

European Patent Office | 80298 MUNICH | GERMANY

Mr Steve Rowan Vice-President DG 1

By email

OPEN LETTER

Formal deficiencies in the electronic Patent Granting Process vs standards for electronic identification

Dear Mr Rowan,

In our open letter of 10 March 2022, we addressed the problem that the current electronic file flow is inadequate to reliably provide properly authenticated actions of the Examining Division where such authentication is a legal requirement of the EPC. In that letter, we also suggested possible remedies. In your reply of 4 April 2022, you unfortunately do not refer in any satisfactory manner to either the problem of authenticated signatures in the electronic file flow nor the suggested solution of introducing electronic signatures into the system.

We do not agree that any deficiencies of the tools provided to the patent examiners to perform their duties should be remedied by simply giving further instructions, be they internal or public, to the examiners, line managers or formality officers. Rather, it can be expected from an organisation that regards itself as one of the leading patent offices in the world to work with tools that – if not at the forefront of technology – meet at least widely recognised standards. In the specific case, such a standard is e.g. set by EU Regulation No 910/2014 on electronic identification means or in the Verordnung über die elektronische Aktenführung (EAPatV) of the German Ministry of Justice. In particular in view of the implementation of




the Unitary Patent it can be expected from the Office to be aware of and apply such standards.

More specifically, it is technically possible to implement an electronic file flow in which each time the EPC requires the signatures of the examining division, the relevant document is electronically signed by each examiner at the moment the examiner signals their approval in the tool provided to control the electronic file flow (currently the Patent Work Bench). The advantage of such an approach is that the validity of the electronic signature and the authenticity of the signed document as well as the identity of the undersigned can be verified later, enhancing legal certainty and increasing trust in the actions issued by the Office. We already referred to severe problems with the signature of an examiner on Search Reports that had been changed without his knowledge and with designating staff as Authorized Officer in public documents who in fact never see those documents (AT-ILO Judgments Nos. 1344, respectively 2417). Furthermore, the Legal Board of Appeal emphasised in decision J 16/17 in all clarity that the requirement laid down in Rule 113(1) EPC (signature and name) is not just a mere formality but an essential procedural step in the decision-taking process.

We are aware that it is the task of DG4 to provide the tools for examiners. However, we think that DG1 should define their technical requirements. Otherwise, DG1 may receive tools that are new and shiny, but inadequate for the work examiners have to perform. Should DG4 currently lack capacity and/or expertise to implement electronic signatures for the electronic file flow, the Office could also make use of expertise in the European Patent Network, e.g. in the German Patent and Trademark Office, which seems to have been working with a functioning system implementing the standards since 2020.

The Central Staff Committee is confident that after your first somewhat evasive answer to our constructive proposal, you are now addressing the real problem and working on a sustainable solution in the interest of staff, the Office and the public.

Yours sincerely,

Alain Dumont Chairman of the Central Staff Committee


How long can EU officials turn a blind ever to EPO misconduct? These scandals rapidly become a liability to the EU itself.

In the words of the staff representatives: "In this open letter to Vice-President DG1, we address again the legal requirement of signature authentication in the electronic file flow. It can be expected from an organisation that regards itself as one of the leading patent offices in the world to work with tools that – if not at the forefront of technology – meet at least widely recognised standards, also in view of the implementation of the Unitary Patent. We are confident that after a first somewhat evasive answer to our constructive proposal, he is now addressing the real problem and working on a sustainable solution in the interest of staff, the Office and the public."

The attempt to forcibly impose "Unitary Patent" is yet another act of abuse or criminality; they knowingly do something illegal. But that's a different subject.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
 
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October