Bonum Certa Men Certa

European Patent Office Staff Votes in Favour of Freedom of Association (97% of Voters in Support)

Video download link | md5sum 8aaf46b4d4e705044ab8a73306f3ff6d EPO Staff Wants Human Contact Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: The Central Staff Committee (CSC) at the EPO makes a strong case for António Campinos to stop breaking and law and actually start obeying court orders (he's no better than Benoît Battistelli and he uses worse language already)

THE CSC Chairman from Munich, along with the ones from The Hague, Vienna, and Berlin (the smaller EPO 'branches'), asked the President to actually act like one. At the moment the EPO is governed by an under-qualified cabal of friends, whose role there is protected by corporate interest groups, which are happy to see the EPO operating in direct violation of its charter (like a regulatory agency that intentionally fails to regulate the industry).



For us in Techrights the main issue of interest is European software patents (and other patent monopolies, as covered in passing in the video above), but for EPO staff there are severe human rights violations to deal with. That's how a bunch of corrupt "managers" (it's all nepotism) keep examiners down and blackmail them into granting European Patents in violation of the EPC, i.e. in violation of the rules that govern the Office. The EPO's Web sites has just published propaganda again, distracting from systematic violations of the EPC.

There's an open letter circulating at the moment, stating:

[CSC] Resolution on freedom of association supported by EPO staff

Dear Colleagues,

All EPO staff was invited to gather in General Assemblies in all four places of employment. The attached resolutions were adopted and found office-wide support of 998 EPO staff members.

We would like to thank you very much for your strong support.

With the resolution EPO staff urges the President

- to quash Article 35(7) ServRegs so as not to prevent re-election of staff committee members, - to restore freedom of communication in the Office by executing Judgment 4551 on mass-emails, - to restore secretarial support to staff committees and - to take into account the requests from staff and to proceed to the relevant amendments to EPO service regulations.

The resolutions have been submitted to the President by open letter.

Michael Kemény Chairman LSC Munich City, Haar and Brussels

Jorge Raposo Chairman LSC The Hague

Martin Schaller Chairman LSC Vienna

Thomas Czogalla Chairman LSC Berlin


The corresponding publication is mostly the same statement from 4 EPO sites.

European Patent Office | 80298 MUNICH | GERMANY

Mr António Campinos President of the EPO

By email

OPEN LETTER



Local Staff Committees Comités locaux du personnel Lokale Personalausschüsse centralSTCOM@epo.org Reference: sc23001bp Date: 27.01.2023

Resolution supported by General Assemblies at all Places of Employment



Dear Mr President,

All EPO staff was invited to gather in General Assemblies in all four places of employment. The attached resolutions were adopted and found the support of 998 members of EPO staff in respective assemblies as follows:

On 19.01.2023 in Munich City, Haar and Brussels supported by 97% (420 votes in favour). On 24.01.2023 in The Hague supported by 97% (485 votes in favour). On 17.01.2023 in Berlin supported by 98% (58 votes in favour). On 23.01.2023 in Vienna supported by 97% (35 votes in favour).

Thereby EPO staff urges you

− to quash Article 35(7) ServRegs so as not to prevent re-election of staff committee members, − to restore freedom of communication in the Office by executing Judgment 4551 on mass-emails, − to restore secretarial support to staff committees.

We urge you to take into account the requests from staff and to proceed to the relevant amendments to EPO service regulations.

Sincerely yours,

[...]

]Annex: The four resolutions


These resolutions are almost identical. Here's the one from Munich:

RESOLUTION



Staff of the EPO in Munich, gathered in a General Assembly,

Noting that: ● Since 2012, the EPO has been consistently testing the limits of employment law. ● The Tribunal already sanctioned the EPO for its illegal strike regulations (Judgments 4430 to 4435), for its “Social Democracy” interference into staff representation elections (Judgment 4482), for prohibiting nominations in the Appeals Committee among all staff (Judgment 4550) and for its unlawful ban on mass-emails (Judgment 4551).

Further noting that:

● The EPO arbitrarily limits the term of office of staff committee members to three consecutive (re-)elections (Article 35(7) ServRegs) thus unduly limiting the right of staff to freely choose their representatives.

● The EPO has not honoured its obligations to restore freedom of communication and hence not executed Judgment 4551 on mass-emails since July 2022.

● The President has disbanded any secretarial support to staff committees.

Express their deep disappointment that the President of the Office has not settled any of his predecessor’s breaches of the fundamental right to freedom of association on his own motion and merely waited for the Tribunal’s judgments.

Urge the President:

− to quash Article 35(7) ServRegs so as not to prevent re-election of staff committee members,

− to restore freedom of communication in the Office by executing Judgment 4551 on mass-emails,

− to restore secretarial support to staff committees.

Request the Administrative Council and the President to put an end to breaches of the right to freedom of association and of the right to freedom of communication at the EPO.

Munich, 19.01.2023


Well, the Administrative Council and the President are closely connected. There's no real governance or oversight there (don't be misled by buzzwords like "Ombuds"; they scuttled the real one!). The Administrative Council receives bribes from the President to 're-elect' this President, who in turn serves special interests of patent maximalists instead of following the charter of the Office. What would the founders of the EPO say if they knew it would sponsor Lukashenko and outsource to Belarus (and also to American spy firms like Microsoft)?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Under the Guise of "MIT Technology Review Insights" the Site MIT Technology Review Posts Corporate Spam as 'Articles'
Some of the articles aren't even articles but 'hit pieces' against Free software and some are paid advertisements
Brett Wilson LLP Has Track Record in Scam Coin Cases (e.g. Craig Wright and More), Now It Works for 'Crypto' Scam Purveyors
But wait, it gets worse
Will Brett Wilson LLP Handle Its Own Winding Up Petition or be Struck Off for Overt Abuse of Process?
Today we sue not only the first Microsofter
Ubuntu Becomes Microsoft GitHub, Based on Decision Made by British Army Officer
You're hopeless, Canonical
Sharing Code and Recipes
It helps explain the triviality of software freedom
How Many Women Has Microsoft's Alex Balabhadra Graveley Already Strangled and Where Does That End?
If you too are a victim of this man and wish to share information, contact us
"We Might Save Somebody's Life"
I follow the example of my father
 
UK Media Under Threat: Cannot Report on Data Breach, Cannot Report on Microsoft Staff Strangling Women
The story of super injunction (in the British media this week, years late)
Victims of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft, Alex Balabhadra Graveley, Wanted to Sue Him But Lacked the Funds (He Attacked Their Finances)
Having spoken to victims of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft
Links 17/07/2025: Science, Hardware, and Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/07/2025: Staying in the "Small Web" and Back on ICQ
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 16, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Exclusive: corruption in Tribunals, Greffiers, from protection rackets to cat whisperers
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 16/07/2025: Chip Bans and Microsoft’s “Digital Escort” Program
Links for the day
Revolving Doors: One Day You're a Judge, the Next Day You're an Attorney Paying Public Officials and Working for Violent and Dangerous Microsoft Employees
how the US justice system works
Slopwatch: Noise, Plagiarism and Even Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation
What are we meant to do to prevent a false association or misleading connotations? Game the LLMs? No. Boycott slopfarms.
Gemini Links 16/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and Simple Web Browsing with TLS
Links for the day
Links 16/07/2025: Fascist Slop Takes "Intelligence" Clothing, New Criminal Case Against MElon
Links for the day
Why I am Suing the Serial Strangler From Microsoft, Alex Balabhadra Graveley, in the UK High Court This Week
Out of respect to the process and to the Court, I shall not share any pertinent details about the case
Links 16/07/2025: China’s Economy Grows Steadily, France Takes Action Regarding Harm to Children by GAFAM and Fentanylware (TikTok)
Links for the day
It is Not About Politics
Beware the people who try to make this about politics
Good Journalism Saves Lives
a shocking number of women die or get seriously hurt every day due to violence from a partner
Recognition of Women's Contributions to Free Software
Being passive is not an option when bad things are happening
Slopfarms Are Going to Perish Because Public Opinion is Changing
Many slopfarms will simply go offline
19 Years of Standing Up for Justice, Equality, and Truth
This week we shall take it up a notch
Gemini Links 16/07/2025: Tmux and OCC25 Working TLS
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 15, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Links 15/07/2025: LLM Pollution and Pushback in Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: xkcd, New Cert, and Alhena Gemlog
Links for the day
Links 15/07/2025: Press Freedom at Risk and New Facebook Blunders
Links for the day
Reboots Should Never be Necessary
"BUT WHAT ABOUT SECURITY!!"
There's Still Hope for the World Wide Web
Let's hope that the trajectory of the Web won't be leading us to over-reliance on Google, nor will it reward worthless slopfarms
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Smolweb and Alhena 5.1.7
Links for the day
The Danes Want GNU/Linux
David Heinemeier Hansson recently moved to GNU/Linux
Cory Doctorow Explains Why Software Freedom Matters, Whereas "Open Source" Misses the Point and Helps Monopolies
It's a very long article
BillPR (EpsteinGate-Bribed NPR) is Turning Into a Partial Slopfarm that Promotes Slop
"I went on a date with a chatbot!"
Two Weeks Passed Since Latest Large Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, More Expected Next Month
Blaming the debt on "AI" is just self-serving storytelling
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 14, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 14, 2025
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Gemini "Style Sheets" and Switching From Microsoft GitHub to Codeberg
Links for the day