Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Leak: Staff of the EPO Challenging Unattainable 'Targets' That Are "in Breach of the EPC" (European Patent Convention)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 14, 2024,
updated Feb 14, 2024

Target setting 2024

A few months ago EPO workers sent a lot of mail challenging the unreasonable and illegal demands set by Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos, basically misapplying rules to illegally grant patent monopolies solely "for profit" (at whose expense?) and it now seems safe to publish the instructions sent to examiners (for the most part). There was a suggested template of mail to send, either to Line Managers or higher ups.

Here is the message sent by SUEPO TH committee (the union leaders in Dutch territories) at the end of November:

Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO)

INTERNATIONALE GEWERKSCHAFT IM EUROPÄISCHEN PATENTAMT
STAFF UNION OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE
UNION SYNDICALE DE L'OFFICE EUROPEEN DES BREVETS

Ortssektion Den Haag
Local section The Hague
Section locale La Haye

28 November 2023
su23016hp

Target setting 2024 - Avoid committing to unattainable objectives

Dear colleagues,

The target setting exercise for 2024 has started.

The 2023 Mercer & Wyman financial study (see p.99/145, figure 12) seems to point to a targeted 2.1% productivity increase in the Patent Granting Process (PGP). The information we are receiving from our colleagues is far more drastic, with requested increases of up to 100% (!) for some individuals.

It appears therefore that the intention is again to impose even higher individual targets than those of 2023 when objectives were already unreachable for many, if they were not to risk their health or compromise quality standards.

According to the intranet publication of 22.11.20231: "Staff and managers alike are kindly invited to engage in collaborative discussions and ensure that goals are entered in the tool before the end of the yea ". When estimating your performance for 2024, we recommend that you be conservative and realistic and avoid committing to unattainable objectives for which you alone will be deemed to be responsible and will have to bear the consequences, in 2024 and beyond.

Don’t forget your health: if your work is having negative effects on your health (exhaustion, stress, sleeping problems, headaches, musculo-squeletal issues…) consult your general practitioner services and report it to your manager and to OHS.

Discussing objectives is reasonable, but committing to a target imposed on you is not. If you nevertheless feel obliged to commit to an imposed target and do not agree with the objectives set, inform your direct manager in writing – possibly using the template below. This is important to protect yourself against a potential negative performance appraisal.

If you feel that you are being put under pressure by your manager or you feel you need any advice don’t hesitate to contact us or your staff representation.

Relevant publication: Increase in capacity for 2024, CSC, 14.11.2023

Kind regards, Your SUEPO TH committee

_____
1 Performance development cycle 2024, 22.11.2024

One can imagine many messages like the following were sent in November and December:

ANNEX: template email to manager, please use only the parts which apply to you, delete and / or adapt the rest.

Dear xxxx,

On _______ my (final) quantitative objectives were set at ____ [products]. As in the past, I commit to working to the best of my abilities in 2024. However, with regard to the proposed objectives for 2024, presently I cannot commit to those objectives for the following reasons:

- The objectives set correspond to an increase of production/productivity of +___% compared to 2023 so I cannot commit to accomplishing them;

- I do not know how my achieved objectives will be evaluated in 2024 - 2025; I was neither informed about the consequences of this evaluation, nor to which part of the Service Regulations the evaluation refers to;

- My working days seem not to be properly calculated. My Parental Leave/ Home Leave / Unpaid Leave were not deducted from the total working days;

- The many hours expected to be spent in training, (team) meetings, system disturbances, etc… which in my case amount to ____ days [put a number if you can make an estimation] have also not been taken into consideration;

- Since the implementation of the new “active search division”, I have been given extra tasks but no extra time budget. It could be that in 2024, further new tasks will be required of me without me being given time to fulfil them. This is likely to further prevent me from reaching my objectives;

- I have been given the following new tasks [please make a list of tasks] which did not previously fall within my job description [if available, make a reference to your job description], and for which I have not been given neither training nor time [adapt if necessary];

- The working tools have not evolved in a way which could help me increase productivity since 2023 and apart from a few procedural modifications without consequence on productivity, nothing has changed in the way I am supposed to perform my work since last year, when my target was __ [please fill in];

- The ratio Search / Actions without point / Grants is influenced by management decisions and/or change of work priority during the year, all of which are beyond my control;

- The files in Search/Examination allocated to me could come from technical fields outside my Area of Competence, as it happened already in the past OR as already announced by team manager/ director/ COO;

- I can neither know nor predict my personal circumstances in 2024. As mentioned above, you can of course continue to count on me to work to the best of my abilities in 2024, as I always have;

- I have been told that I need to increase my production / productivity by X% in order to “pay” for the salary adjustment I am likely to be receiving in January 2024 as a result of salary indexation. Salary indexation is only meant to adjust my income to the increased cost of living and is irrelevant to objective setting.

- [For examiners] My intention to work together with the team to achieve good results may find its natural limits in my duty to deliver quality products under the EPC. If management expects me to go beyond this limit by delivering products which do not necessarily meet the requirements of the EPC, I expect written instructions to do so, so that the responsibility for the quality of these products and the consequences thereof will not be placed at my door.

- [For other functions] My intention to work together with the team to achieve good results may find its natural limits in my duty to deliver quality work which fulfils the requirements of my job description. If management expects me to go beyond this limit by delivering work which does not necessarily meet the requirements of my job description, I expect written instructions to do so, so that the responsibility for the quality of my work and the consequences thereof will not be placed at my door.

Best regards
[your name]

It's hard to guess just how many messages like these were sent, but that matters a lot because they try to curb the bubble that includes many European software patents.

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
 
Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
Links 23/07/2025: Retreating From Transparency on Jeffrey Epstein, We No Longer Have Press Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Piano and Food
Links for the day
New and Old
On Ageism in Tech
EPO Crimes Are Spreading to the British Court System
Society is now paying the price for failing to tackle crimes at the EPO
It's Time to Dump SharePoint and Here's What to Use Instead
Nextcloud, ownCloud, Bookstack, MediaWiki, and MediaGoblin
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Has Gone Silent
Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Planet Ubuntu, and LinuxTechLab
some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
Links 23/07/2025: Book Bans, Storms, and Kangaroo Court for Patents Commits More Unlawful Acts of Overreach
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: Thinkpad and Pinephone
Links for the day
Links 22/07/2025: "Blog Restart" and Microsoft Clobbered by “ToolShell"
Links for the day
Global Warming and Global GAFAM Energy-Wasting
Burn more money (borrowed, loans), then hope the waste will somehow translate into profit?
No Compliance With the European Patent Convention (EPC) at the European Patent Office (EPO)
It's about preventing competition against this autocracy
Blue-Collar Trolls vs White-Collar Trolls
Examples of white-collar trolls
Apple Vision Pro Failed So Badly That Its Sales Are About 2,000 Times Smaller Than iPhone Sales
What's left for Apple to offer other than hype?
To Millions of People "Year of the Linux Desktop" Was Some Time in the 1990s (Bootable GNU/Linux as a Complete Operating System is Over 33 in Age)
In some sense, "year of the Linux desktop" was 33 years ago
Make No Assumptions (or Demands) About the Screen Resolution Used by Other People
There are usability aspects, aside from accessibility aspects
Why Wayland (and XWayland) Won't Solve the Key Problem It Proclaims to be Tackling (the Same Is True for Rust)
The problem isn't Wayland per se but the false promises and efforts to force everybody to move to it whilst insulting or demonising everyone who won't play along
They Don't Tell Us that 'Digitalisation' (Now Sold as "Hey Hi") Just Means Customers Become Unpaid Staff and Are Made Accountable
People are being conditioned to associate technology with something undesirable, at times even unbearable
Diplomatic Immunity Should Not Exist for Anybody
The EPO in its current form gradually 'normalises' the end of European democracy
Brett Wilson LLP Stopped Sending Me Papers When I Showed It had Sent Me Over 5 Kilograms of Legal Papers
A week ago we lodged our third lawsuit
Microsoft Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns Became the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft mass layoffs became a topic of everyday media coverage since May
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Has Layoffs and Microsoft Gaming/Entertainment Division Has an Uncertain Future
it's good to see all those horrible things crashing and burning
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 21, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 21, 2025
FSF "Raised Almost $139,000 During This Summer Campaign"
"Thank you for making a stand against dystopia!"
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: VPS Exploited and Fear of View
Links for the day
LLM Bots vs Techrights
Slows things down a bit
New Publication Sheds Lights on Abuse of Workers at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Put in simple terms, they're killing the Office, harming remaining staff, try to hire rubber-stampers
Links 21/07/2025: Hardware, Health, and Imperialism
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/07/2025: "When Buying Isn't Owning" and "CMS Special Edition"
Links for the day
Links 21/07/2025: Indie Web and Toxic Politics
Links for the day
[Meme] Microsoft Lawyers Throwing Stones in Glass Houses
threatened me with bankruptcy
Google "AI Overview" is Not AI and Not Overview
do not be misled; what Google does isn't smart, it's just ripping off the sites it already crawled for as long as 27 years
Making the Case to Dump Microsoft and GAFAM for National and Digital Sovereignty
"Sovereignty is difficult"
The Tactics of the Opposition (Microsoft Lunduke): Associate With K00ks, Throw in Vaccines to Muddy the Water
Who stands to gain from this?
Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO) and Largest Patent Monopoly Office Needs More Transparency, Not Less Transparency
In the EPO, what good are elections when one candidate literally bribes all the voters?
How Not to Report News About Microsoft
This pattern of misreporting is so widespread that it's hard to believe it's not intentional
Computer Science is Under Attack, They Want Everyone to be a Consumer
If people can no longer acquire Computer Science education and real Computer Science experience, they will not know how to control their own digital destiny or emancipate the very same universities that now control the syllabus and instead of teaching Computer Science encourage the outsourcing of systems
The Best Tools Are the Simplest Tools
There's a hidden message here about the merits of sticking with X
Ofcom Online Safety Group Speaks of Protecting Women Online, Will Brett Wilson LLP Ever Listen?
They've essentially became like the Taliban's "burka police"
Social Control Media Relies on Advertisers, So It'll Always Be Hostile Towards Free Software
Sales, sales, sales
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 20, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 20, 2025
Fragmentation of Data
Life is too short to "hoard" data
In Defence of "Spinning Rust"
Just because something is "old" (or older) doesn't mean it ought to become extinct
Using Free Software to Prepare Legal Documents
LibreOffice is openly complaining about OOXML as an obstacle
Tech and Technology Are Not the Same Anymore
"Are you into tech, Sir?"
Our Articles About SLAPPs Receive Recognition and Interest
This week we shall continue writing about the 3 lawsuits we filed