07.11.22

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When EPO Does Not Control and Coerce the Judges — Part I — ILOAT 134th Session: Two More Bittersweet Victories for EPO Staff

Posted in Courtroom, Europe, Law, Patents at 3:58 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

This past Friday we mentioned [1, 2] that the European Patent Office (EPO) was condemned again — less than a week ago — by judges at the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organisation (ILOAT); now let’s look more closely…

Series parts:

YOU ARE HERE ☞ ILOAT 134^th Session: Two More Bittersweet Victories for EPO Staff

The judgments of the 134^th Session of the ILOAT were delivered on 6 July 2022. Registrar Dražen Petrović (I.) and President of the Tribunal Michael Moore (r.)

Summary: A short four-part mini-series reporting on the outcome of the 134^th Session of the ILOAT and the implications for the EPO‘s dysfunctional justice system

The 134^th Session of the ILOAT, was held from 25 April to 27 May 2022 and the judgments adopted during the session were delivered in public on 6 July 2022 by a video recording (Invidious link).

Around 19 of the cases settled by the Tribunal during this session related to complaints filed by EPO staff. As usual, the majority of these complaints were dismissed on various formalistic grounds.

However in two cases, EPO staff members won significant legal victories as reported recently on the Kluwer Patent Blog.

However, these victories were bittersweet ones that once again highlighted the inadequacy of the system of legal protection available to EPO staff and, more generally, to employees of international organisations.

The ILOAT judgments in question are nos. 4550 [PDF] and 4551. [PDF]

“In both cases the Tribunal found in favour of the complainants and ruled that the actions of EPO bosses had violated the fundamental right of staff to freedom of association.”Judgment no. 4550 relates to the premature termination of the complainant’s appointment as member of the Internal Appeals Committee in April 2014 on the basis of CA/D 2/14 (Benoît Battistelli’s so-called “Social Democracy”).

Judgment no. 4551 relates to a ban on the use of mass e-mails by EPO staff representatives which was imposed by Battistelli’s “Croatian bulldog”, the notorious union-buster Željko Topić, via a communiqué issued on 31 May 2013.

In both cases the Tribunal found in favour of the complainants and ruled that the actions of EPO bosses had violated the fundamental right of staff to freedom of association. However, the Tribunal displayed extraordinary and inexplicable leniency with regard to the financial sanctions imposed on the EPO for these breaches of fundamental rights.

In this mini-series we will look at these two judgments in more detail and examine their wider implications for the EPO’s notoriously dysfunctional internal justice system. █

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