European Patent Office Talks of New Tools Based on 'Open Source' While Outsourcing Almost Everything to Proprietary Spyware of Microsoft
"All the Legacy tools will be replaced with modern working tools based on open source." - Report from 8 weeks ago
What are those "Legacy tools" (with uppercase L)? Migration to Microsoft Outlook? In a likely violation of laws that is still ongoing.
AT THE END of November the EPO's Central Staff Committee wrote to staff about a meeting that had involved António Campinos, the man who protects and extends Benoît Battistelli's illegal policies. They turn a once-thriving patent office into a printing machine of invalid monopolies. Europe will pay this. We know who stands to profit.
The message sent to the staff was as follows:
Dear colleagues,The Central Staff Committee (CSC) met with the President on 30 October 2023. The meeting was an opportunity to hear the President on his Strategic Plan 2028 (SP2028).
The President promised an increase in quality and productivity by 2028 and then 2035 as planned in the Financial Study 2023 thanks to digitisation and IT modernization, and that to this end he believed in "human-centric artificial intelligence".
On the New Ways of Working (NWoW) the President stated that the scheme improved the health of staff and a survey will be made at the start of next year. The buildings BT1-4 could be rented out in the future.
Concerning recruitment, the President objected to our interventions in the Council that units are understaffed and maintained that the 80% replacement rate in DG1 and 60% in all other DGs was an "aspirational target".
Finally, the running tender for replacing/renewing the present health insurance provider Cigna was addressed.
Here is the full publication as HTML/Plain Text/GemText:
Zentraler Personalausschuss
Central Staff Committee
Le Comité Central du PersonnelMunich, 29-11-2023
sc23135cpReport on the CSC meeting with the President on 30 October 2023
Following the CSC election, the newly elected committee whose mandate started on 1 July 2023 sought a meeting with the President. This came to fruition in the form of a video conference of 45 min on 30 October 20223. The meeting took place in a cordial atmosphere.
It is important that the CSC can meet with the President so that he may get to know the new CSC members. Concurrently the CSC can get to know directly from the President his position on issues that go beyond the scope of specific technical meetings which serve to prepare the GCC meetings.
The new CSC elected members (Marika, Evelyn, Anil) presented themselves and shortly explained what motivated them to join the Staf representation and what they would like to achieve. The President thanked them for their high motivation and moved on to issues of general interest.
The President stated that SP2028 is now well underway.
1. The President explained that big improvements have already been made and will continue to be made in the IT area. For instance, pre classification and search have improved and will continue to improve due to the new IT tools. Reduction in productivity due to the transition to a fully digital environment in all IP areas not only the examination has plateaued. The Digitalisation started in 2018 but accelerated during the pandemic. It was clear that the productivity targets could not be met during that time. The President mentioned that now there will be increases in quality and productivity and importantly there will be changes in the way the EPO/examiners interact with applicants. In his opinion the present way of dealing with applicants by exchanging communications back and forth is outdated. All the Legacy tools will be replaced with modern working tools based on open source.
In reply to a question from the CSC regarding the Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the EPO, the President clarified that he ‘is not in the business of replacing humans with machines’. He mentioned that he believes in human-centric AI, where the AI helps the staff to perform their job.
2. Regarding a survey of all staff on the new ways of Working (NWoW), the President mentioned that in his opinion this new way of working has helped to improve the health of staff. Nevertheless, a survey will be made at the start of the next year. He promised that the SR will be consulted, and results of the survey will be communicated to staff.
3. The CSC sees an issue with the low rate of recruitment. The President replied that he does not see understaffing. He mentioned that he and VP4 do not understand why the SR makes such interventions in the AC. He said that the 80% replacement rate in DG1 and 60% in all other DGs was an “aspirational” target.
4. On the question if he changed his mind regarding the future of the EPO buildings, the President reiterated that BT5-BT8 will neither be sold nor rented.
On the other hand, the fate of BT1-4 depends on the occupancy once NWoW becomes permanent (post-pilot phase). For the moment the administration is in a Brainstorming process. One option is of course that BT1-4 could be rented out. There would be however substantial renovation costs involved. There is no discussion of selling any of the buildings and according to the President there never were.
5. The President was questioned about the new financial study which foresees quite an impressive increase of productivity by 2028 and then 2035 due to means of improved IT systems. For the CSC, this ambitious transformation of IT tools will mean that staff must adapt to the new tools and that this will take time. Thus, the CSC asked the President if all goes according to his plan, where he would see the office in term of staffing and working practice.
The President answered that he sees these productivity figures as a must to move forward from the outdated IT tools to modern ones. This also means that the Legacy tools must be decommissioned. The speed of IT modernization must not be reduced. IT modernization will improve productivity, quality, and effectiveness. The modernization is in the hands of the CTO.
6. Regarding the health insurance, a matter that every employee feels concerned about and are paying for, the CSC would have wanted to be involved in the technical drafting of the ongoing tender for replacing/renewing our present provider Cigna. The procedure is now past that stage, so the present request is to be at least involved in the assessment phase of the tender.
The President replied that the SR will be allocated a post as observer in the assessment phase.
In conclusion, the CSC highlighted that although improvements have been made in terms of social communication with the administration, more is needed. More extensive meetings (not only 45 min) and even face to face meetings with the President are desirable.
The President thanked the CSC for confirming that the social dialogue has improved. His opinion was however, that everyone has his job to do and that these are codified in the EPC and Codex. Presently he sees no need for any change in this respect. He mentioned however, that a further meeting between him and the CSC will be set up before the end of the year.
The Central Staff Committee
It is worth noting, since they mention "Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the EPO", that "AI" has becomes a meaningless buzzword and often a synonym for automation (or any computer program that does some "logic" - i.e. virtually every program). Sadly, and it needs to be said often, Artificial Intelligence (AI) also became a sneaky weaselword (or term) for the promotion of European software patents - basically pretending that "modern" or "advanced" or so-called "generative" (program with outcome or output) algorithms somehow escape the remit of patent scope and enter some metaphysical wedlock, wherein patents aren't just permitted but are imperative. Impermissible patent realms have long sought buzzwords and hype; years ago it was "blockchain" and "4IR" or whatever... this should become a subject for jokes and memes, not sound administration of a patent office meant to advance science.
This patent office is run by kids who impose toys on everybody. █
