European Patent Office (EPO) Faked "Revenue Expansion" by Granting Loads of Invalid, Illegal Patents; Staff Still Wants to Know Where That Money Went

posted by Roy Schestowitz on May 09, 2025

The EPO isn't meant to hoard money (it's the law!) or gamble with money, but today's EPO breaks the law with impunity and the money 'vanishes'

Earlier this week the union of EPO staff (almost 7,000 workers) spoke about "Education allowance deductions from school invoices"; the short story is, once again staff feels "short-changed". "Deductions for school year 2024/2025," they argue, merit a challenge, maybe collective action and even legal action. To quote:

Dear colleagues,

If you have received the education allowance for the current school year (2024/2025), you probably have had deductions on the reimbursement on costs attributed to school trips that were however not specified as such in the school invoice.

If you’re in this case and you have received further information from the school on the real costs of the school trips that differ from the initial estimations made by the Office, you may want to request to HR the reimbursement of the difference.

Should you get a negative answer, please contact us at [redacted].

Please be aware that this applies to any type of deductions you might have seen on the amount of the allowance.

Do not hesitate to contact us at [redacted] if you have any questions.

It may not seem like a huge deal, however it's part of a pattern, as we covered in: Staff Union of the EPO (SUEPO) in The Hague Taking Action to Rectify Cuts to Families of Workers | EPO Discriminates Against Families of Its Own Workers, the Union Explains Legal Basis Upon Which It's Likely Illegal and Must be Challenged

The EPO harms whole families.

No wonder under Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos the EPO cannot recruit smart people and can barely even retain any. Salaries and working conditions continue to deteriorate. New staff is treated as disposable. Old staff gets disposed of. The management isn't qualified for the job, but it boils down to nepotism and bribery (buying elections).

Many have had enough with this abuse (e.g. being bullied into granting European software patents - i.e. patents which are both illegal and undesirable) and want to leave, even retire early.

Oh, retire early you say?

Well, that's a bit tricky.

The Central Staff Committee has circulated a new communication which seems to suggest further hardships:

Dear Colleagues,

The financial situation of the EPO continues to be excellent and the Office recently celebrated again that the "[r]evenue expansion bolsters operating result”. However, the Office continues to steer the Actuarial Study 2025 with over-conservative layers of assumptions and targets to impact staff benefits.

The actuarial valuations made by the Actuarial Advisory Group (AAG) can serve as a basis for justifying proposals for changing employment conditions. Their mandate for 2025 explicitly mentions that “recommendations are expected on […] actuarial reduction factors applicable in case of early retirement”. These factors are defined in Article 8 of the Pension Regulations adopted by the Administrative Council and clearly relate to employment conditions.

The previous Actuarial Study took place in 2023. At the time, the administration had notified the staff representation in February 2023 of the dates of the meetings with the actuaries and the first meeting took place in the beginning of May 2023.

In the GCC meeting of 6 May 2025, the administration explained that for this year, the first meeting with the actuaries will be on 2 June 2025. This is beyond the deadline of 31 May 2025 for colleagues to inform the Administration of their intention to retire as of 1 December 2025 in order to escape any potential change to retirement conditions as of 1 January 2026.

We asked explicitly the administration: “Can you confirm that no change to early retirement factors will be implemented as of 1 January 2026?”. The answer from Principal Directorate 4.3 was: “We are not in a position to give a response”.

Under these conditions, we advise colleagues already contemplating going on early retirement to send an email to their line manager and the Human Resources Department in order to get more information.

If more and more veteran workers leave, examination at the EPO will be even worse and hence compliance rates will be low. Many fake patents will be granted, giving a false sense of accomplishment (the EPO is selling monopolies; it does not produce anything!) while those who pay the price are the general public. It's a hidden tax on everything!

Here's the full publication dated yesterday:

Zentraler Personalausschuss
Central Staff Committee
Le Comité Central du Personnel

Munich, 08-05-2025
sc25029cp

Early retirement factors
“We are not in a position to give a response”

Dear Colleagues,

The financial situation of the EPO continues to be excellent and the Office recently celebrated again that the “[r]evenue expansion bolsters operating result”¹. However, the Office continues to steer the Actuarial Study 2025 with over-conservative layers of assumptions and targets to impact staff benefits.

In his reply dated 10 April to our letter of 7 March, Mr Campinos explained that the Actuarial Advisory Group (AAG) does not have a mandate to propose changes to employment conditions, such as adjusting the retirement age, or to identify a funding gap. Indeed, it is up to the President of the Office to propose such changes to the Administrative Council after the consultation process.

However, the actuarial valuations made by the AAG can serve as a basis for justifying proposals for changing employment conditions and the mandate of the AAG for 2025 explicitly mentions that “recommendations are expected on […] actuarial reduction factors applicable in case of early retirement”. These factors are defined in Article 8 of the Pension Regulations adopted by the Administrative Council and clearly relate to employment conditions.

The previous Actuarial Study took place in 2023. At the time, the administration had notified the staff representation in February 2023 of the dates of the meetings with the actuaries and the first meeting took place in the beginning of May 2023.

In the GCC meeting of 6 May 2025, the administration explained that for this year, the first meeting with the actuaries will be on 2 June 2025. This is beyond the deadline of 31 May 2025 for colleagues to inform the Administration of their intention to retire as of 1 December 2025 in order to escape any potential change to retirement conditions as of 1 January 2026.

We asked explicitly the administration: “Can you confirm that no change to early retirement factors will be implemented as of 1 January 2026?”. The answer from Principal Directorate 4.3 was: “We are not in a position to give a response”.

______________________

¹ “Financial status report December 2024”, News item of 17-04-2025

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Under these conditions, we advise colleagues already contemplating going on early retirement to send the email below to their line manager and the Human Resources Department: [...]

If so many people leave, resulting in an exodus of knowledge and skills, maybe the EPO will make up excuses to illegally outsource more workflows to machines without consulting anyone.

This is the price of Europe (and the EU) turning a blind eye to its own corruption. If Europe's "exports" become European monopolies (in Europe) for Chinese and American companies, then what the heck does Europe stand to gain? Only about 30% of the EPO's patents are for EU entities/people. █