Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO's Central Staff Committee Talking About the Demise of Law Compliance or Patent Quality (Many Invalid Patents Are Being Granted), Now With an Illegal and Unconstitutional Kangaroo Court to Hide These Scandals (UPC)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jan 11, 2024,
updated Jan 11, 2024

EPC 50 years

A couple of months ago the Central Staff Committee (CSC) of the EPO published the following, marking the 50th anniversary of the EPC, which the EPO routinely violates in pursuit of money.

Here is what the CSC said:

Zentraler Personalausschuss
Central Staff Committee
Le Comité Central du Personnel

Munich, 16-10-2023
sc23123cp

50 years EPC
Rewarding quality in the core business

« Production is the only thing that guarantees our payslip on the 26th of every month »

--DG1 director

Normally directors dutifully trickle down the management mantra, both the official one and the unofficial one. Especially at the Office, any other attitude would quickly cause them to be exiled to director posts “ad personam” or other loss of their prerogatives.

When meeting with staff, managers talk turkey. When the unofficial management mantra encounters staff resistance, managers cannot limit their instructions to oral ones and lay them down in written form1.

We can consider it common ground, and figures (quality report et al.) show it, that the current functioning in DG1 operative units does not contribute to improving quality.

The Staff Committee has already drawn the attention to the worrying situation2 and made proposals to the President and in the Administrative Council but it seems necessary to repeat them once more. After all, repetitio est mater studiorum3.

Staff the divisions and their support appropriately

Patent applications have risen since 2012 while the number of examiners decreased4. The plan of the Office for future recruitment of examiners (CA/100/22) shows that not only does upper management see no issue with these opposing trends, but that they intend to continue in this direction. This means only one thing for the examiners that remain – more pressure to produce, and less time to dedicate to each file. IT tools remain from the perspective of the users merely a new user interface and certainly do not enable examiners to think quicker so that they can read and analyse documentation any faster than before.

The situation is certainly no better for formalities officers (FOs). In fact, there has been no recruitment at all of formalities officers since 2019. In the area of Patent Administration, the number of FOs has decreased significantly by around 12% since 2018. The plan for 2023 is also for zero recruitment, with some potential for recruitment thereafter. However, the planning still foresees to further reduce the number of FOs for every single year until 2027.

There is one simple answer to the Office being behind target and not managing to deal with incoming workload, and that is – more recruitment.

________________

1 “Productivity vs Quality at the EPO: A rare glimpse behind the curtain that’s worrying”, PatentLigitation.ch Blog, 26-07- 2023

2 “Patent Quality: Can it be put back on the EPO's agenda?”, CSC paper (sc23024cp), 24-02-2023

3 Repetition is the mother of study/learning.

4 “Depletion of the Workforce: Failure to recruit under the current administration”, CSC paper (sc23020cp), 17-02-2023


Respect the work of the divisions

The next priority is to stop interfering with the work of the search / examining / opposition divisions. The EPC has safeguards built in for quality, managed by the members of the divisions in the first place, which have been operative and successful since the inception of the Office. For instance, practices such as changing the composition of divisions until the outcome of the divisions’ work pleases management must stop. In the case of oppositions, we have even seen team managers and directors acting as “hidden” members of the division although there is no provision for it in the EPC. We cannot sustain either the recent managerial decision to consider patentable subject-matter which is excluded from patentability according to Case Law5. Finally, the continuous reduction of time allocated to divisions is a lack of respect of their work.

Reward quality or: “you get what you pay for”

A priority is also to reconsider the reward schemes. Although “quality” is formally part of the reward exercise, it does not receive in practice the importance it deserves in the appraisal exercise. The statement that production is the only thing that counts demonstrates this.

Over the year, the current management has been introducing additional bonuses rewarding staff who show interest in each new trend the management invents, with the introduction of so called “collaborative bonuses” for “contributions to strategic projects” or the latest one of June 2023, the so-called “strategic bonuses” rewarding contributions to some yearly strategic initiatives6. These new bonuses now make up a substantial chunk of the financial reward envelope, and in the case of strategic bonuses7, benefit a predefined subset of staff that are eligible for reward, most of which come from areas outside of DG 1, and with no transparency in the distribution thus far8. These incentives reward submissiveness and endorsement of short-term ideas developed in the successive phases of the strategic plans and divert resources away from the core business. Instead, we suggest that management allocates appropriate time budget to interested DG1 staff (examiners, formalities officers...) when their input is necessary to shape its strategic and other plans. In many cases indeed, DG1 staff can be useful in assisting management who is not necessarily acquainted with the core business.

Most of the budgetary envelopes for bonuses must be redirected to rewarding genuine quality, which is a long-term investment in the sustainability of the Office, i.e., which is a contribution eligible for a pensionable reward. On the contrary, upper management shows little interest in rewarding those who are still showing dedication to their unvarying core roles by maintaining the high standards of quality, but rather are drawn like magpies to the constant stream of shiny new short-term projects that can be neatly completed with boxes satisfyingly ticked. Assessing substantive quality is all the more difficult when upper management loses touch with the core business and the actual work of examiners and formalities officers (FOs). However: in the practice of their daily work, examiners and FOs (and team managers) can assess very well how their peers work. For the time being, peer assessment is an unknown practice at the EPO. In fact, it could hardly be implemented in the EPO’s purely competition-based career system rewarding some at the expense of others.

Conclusion

The patent world has been debating quality for a long time. Concretely, apart from spreading its usual gospel, the Office has taken little concrete action to improve the situation.

A return to the basics is a must. At a time when the Office is looking back on 50 years of history and gearing up for a sustainable future, it is urgent that upper management finally gets back to the core business and what has made the Office a success story, namely its staff and the quality of their work.

The Central Staff Committee

_____________

5 “Distress among DG1 examiners”, CSC letter to VP1 (sc23043cl), 20-04-2023

6 “Incentivising strong teamwork with strategic impact: Strategic Bonus for the 2023 rewards cycle” and GCC/DOC 13/2023

7 “New strategic bonus scheme launches”, Communiqué of 13-06-2023

8 Efforts in creating transparency in the annual reward exercise has thus far been absent with respect to the strategic bonus allocation

This is miles worse than the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), where patent grants continue to climb and quality continues to sink, albeit the courts reject many of the patents, citing 35 U.S.C. § 101 (and similar reasons).

At the EPO, owing to EU complicity, last year they set up yet more kangaroo 'courts' (tribunals controlled by the EPO and the "industry" of litigation/monopolies). This is not justice but an attack on justice, as well as on various constitutions and laws.

As someone put it earlier this week: "This is all the more astonishing given that it is far from clear which national law (according Article 5.3 of Regulation 1257/2012) determines the acts against which a unitary patent provides protection..."

This profound crisis has thankfully begun earning much-needed media attention.

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

[Meme] Walking Outside the Guardrails of the Walled Gardens Built by Monopolies
So-called "advertiser-unfriendly" material was never a problem for Wikileaks
This War Crime Footage, Nothing Political Per Se, Is What They Made Julian Assange Plead Guilty To (War Criminals Not Convicted, Only Those Who Expose Them)
Wikileaks' Julian Assange: Exposing the US Military Crimes
20 Years Passed, Let's Go Even Faster Now
We are hoping to bring more original stories
Windows Lost Almost 92% Market Share in Egypt
From over 99% to just over 7%
 
Microsoft’s Latest Antitrust Scrutiny
4 new stories
Microsoft Layoffs, Mass Plagiarism, and More
outrage included
GNU/Linux Climbed 0.25% This Month (in statCounter)
Around midday on Tuesday we'll start seeing preliminary data for July
Ilya Gulko Introduces Pollyanna
"Pollyanna is a web framework that makes it easy to create your own libre social space, such as a social network or blog."
'FSFE': Underage Labour, GAFAM Fronting, and Identity Theft to Undermine the FSF's Current Fundraiser
looking to raise funds at the same time as the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 29, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, June 29, 2024
Links 29/06/2024: Astronauts at Risk, Ukraine Updates
Links for the day
Fedora and Red Hat Leftovers
mostly redhat.com
Microsoft is Now Googlebombing or Spamming 'Open Source' and 'Linux' to Promote Proprietary Surveillance, Azure
Notice the title and the image, what's being promoted etc.
Seychelles: GNU/Linux Doing OK
Seychelles cannot be considered poor
Gemini Protocol Isn't Even Remotely "Dead"
"Lupa knows of 505,000 (half a million!) working Gemini URLs at present, up from about 425,000 this time last year"
About 10 New Free Software Foundation (FSF) Members Per Day
The total changed from 46 to 47 while typing the article
Vista 11 Adoption Unusually Low in Germany and It's Going Down, Not Up
This is not happening only in Germany
Kevin Korte on Computers Being Allowed to Make Decisions Based on Cryptic Algorithms and Proprietary/Secret Data
It uses buzzwords where none are needed
[Meme] Garbage In, Garbage Out (linuxsecurity.com)
It is neither Linux nor security, just chatbot-generated slop
Microsoft-Invaded CISA Spreads Anti-Free Software FUD (as If Proprietary Software Has No Memory Safety Issues), Brittany Day Uses Chatbots to Amplify and Permutate the Microsoft FUD
linuxsecurity.com became an anti-Linux spam site
Microsoft Laying Off Staff in an Act of Retaliation and Union-Busting
retaliatory layoffs at Microsoft
Gemini Links 29/06/2024: Content Drowning in 'Goo' and LLM Slop
Links for the day
In Ecuador, GNU/Linux Adoption Surged From Under 1% to Over 4% in About 3 Years
Not even counting Chromebooks
LibrePlanet: Cultivating Backups (of Recordings)
an appeal to recover some of these talks
Microsoft/Windows Machines Are Turned Off (or Windows Deleted/Decommissioned) in Web Servers, as the "Market Share" Collapse Continues
Taking full history into account, this is a decrease of over 90% in some cases
Corwin Brust Hosting Freedom: A Behind-the-scenes Tour With the GNU Savannah Hackers
"the "smiling faces" behind it."
Android at 90% or More in Chad
Windows below 2%
David Wilson: Cultivating a Welcoming Free Software Community That Lasts
"a feeling of shared ownership for all users."
Julian Assange Might Continue Wikileaks, But Certainly Not Yet (Recovery Time Needed)
And probably at a symbolic capacity only
Bringing in 12 Santas and Taking 13 Out (Old Interview With Julian Assange)
Julian Assange's life inside the Ecuadorian embassy
Neil Plotnick on GNU/Linux in the High School Classroom
uploaded to the LibrePlanet instance of MediaGoblin
Asia Appears to be Fastest to Adopt GNU/Linux
the home of a considerable majority of the world's population
Alexandre Oliva's LibrePlanet 2024 Talk About "Software Enshittification"
in spite of technical difficulties encountered while recording
What They Used to Do With Mono They Now Do With Systemd (Lower and Deeper Down Than Userspace)
Now we have a project started primarily by Red Hat (and managed by Microsoft GitHub, which is proprietary) being managed by Microsoft and primarily serving Microsoft and IBM
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 28, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, June 28, 2024
Links 28/06/2024: Kangaroo Courts and Patents Spam, EFF Still Fighting for CPC's TikTok (a Digital Weapon)
Links for the day
Links 28/06/2024: Overton window and Polarization
Links for the day
[Meme] In 50 Years...
Microsoft's Vista 11 will take 50 years to be fully adopted
Only About 1 in 8 Russian Windows Users is Using Vista 11
it looks like over the past 12 months Vista 11 hardly grew and it remains very low at around 12% of Windows usage in Russia
Links 28/06/2024: More Attacks on the Press, More Censorship in Russia
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/06/2024: Christmas Prematurely, Self-hosting
Links for the day
IBM: So Long, Suckers. Your Free OS is Now Proprietary. Pay IBM or Else.
almost exactly a year after turning RHEL into proprietary software
Vista 11 is Doomed and Despite Lack of Adoption Microsoft Already Speaks of Vapourware ("12")
"Microsoft has pulled a Windows 11 update after users reported boot loops and startup failures."
ChromeOS Reaches Highest Share in Years at the World's Most Populous Nation, Windows Now at All-Time Low of 13%
We're talking about India today
[Video] "It Is Incredible That Julian Assange Survives"
There was a positive and mutual relationship between Wikileaks and Dr Jill Stein
Never Assume That Because the Law Exists the Powerful Will Follow the Law
Who's going to hold them accountable now?
Nearly a Month Has Passed and Nobody at the Debian Project Even Attempted to Explain What Seems Like Back-dooring of Debian (and Hundreds of Distros That Are Debian-Derived)
I can cynically guess that only matters when a user with a Chinese name does it
[Video] Julian Assange Explains Wikileaks' Logistics
predating indefinite detention
IBM Was Never the "Good Guy", Just a Self-Serving and Opportunistic Money- and Power-Hungry Monopolist, Living Off of Taxpayers' Money (Government Contracts)
The Nazi Party of Germany was its second-biggest client at one point and now it's looking to profit from the work of slaves
"I Hated Working at IBM. They Were the Most Unfriendly People."
Don't forget what Watson the son did to a poor woman on a plane
State of the News (and Depletion of Journalism Online, Not Just Offline)
Newspapers are not coming back and the Web is not coming back either
GNU/Linux Consolidates in North America
Android rising a lot this year, too
[Meme] More Monopolies Granted While Patent Examiners Die (Overworking for Less Compensation)
Work more; Get less
Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO) is Taking the New Pension Scheme (NPS) to an International Tribunal (ILOAT)
SUEPO wants more EPO staff to participate in collective action
Stella Assange and the Legal Team Speak to the Media a Day After WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Arrives in Australia
Published yesterday by a number of mainstream publishers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 27, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, June 27, 2024
RIP Daniel Bristot de Oliveira, Red Hat death
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock