European Patent Office Illegally Gutting and Outsourcing Its Functions, Acting Like an Above-the-Law Commercial Business (It Won't Stop at Formalities Officers (FOs) and Classification Slop at the EPO)
Angel Aledo Lopez and António Campinos: (basically white-collar criminals who net huge salaries by breaking/violating laws and conventions - a problem they've already spread to the EU)
Older and related (context and background to all this):
- 2020: SUEPO (the EPO's Staff Union): “EPO Will Let Highly Experienced Examiners and Formalities Officers Leave Without Any Possibility of Knowledge Transfer to New Recruits”
- 2022: Formalities Officers Team Managers at the European Patent Office Consider Stepping Down
- 2024: EPO as Tower of Babel (No Formality Officers)
- 2024: [Teaser] Fate of Formalities Officers (FOs) at the EPO
- 2025: Formalities Officers (FOs) at the EPO Are in Trouble, Reveals Internal Report
"Dear Colleagues," wrote the Central Staff Committee to staff. "Ahead of the upcoming meeting scheduled for 23 September 2025 between the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and the Formalities Officers community, the staff representation sent in an open letter to the COO requests for transparency and clarity about the future of Formalities Officers."
That's next week.
"Besides highlighting the lack of clear information," they said, "the letter also stresses the need for a channel for social dialogue dedicated to DG1 matters."
The EPO is Europe's second-largest institution, utterly ripe for and rife with corruption under Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos (who bought their 'election' and basically engaged in vote-buying), so the matter belongs in the public domain. Scrutiny is well overdue, even prosecution, but the overseers are so complicit that it's not likely to happen any time soon. Europe is heading in a similar direction to that of the United States and Russia.
For a little bit of context, in 2010 Battistelli and fellow "alphamales" pushed out the EPO's President, a female Brit, and then shoehorned the litigation industry - along with illegal kangaroo courts - into the sole authority for granting monopolies in Europe (not just EU). Having done loads of illegal things that merit an arrest, Battistelli then meddled in many affairs to ensure his French friend, Campinos, succeeds him for another decade or so, effectively covering up what happened while continuing the destruction of the Office (for personal gains of associates). They even plunder former EPO staff. It is a giant racket set up by people who wear suits and cannot even speak the local language (poor English, no German).
What has happened to Europe?
Here it is as plain text, HTML, and GemText (depending on the protocol one uses to read this:
European Patent Office
80298 Munich
GermanyCentral Staff Committee
Comité central du personnel
Zentraler PersonalausschusscentralSTCOM@epo.org
Reference: sc25052cl
Date: 18/09/2025
European Patent Office | 80298 MUNICH | GERMANY
To: Mr Angel Aledo Lopez (Chief Operating Officer)
By email:
To: coo@epo.orgOPEN LETTER
Displacement of Formalities Officers roles
Dear Chief Operating Officer,
Dear Angel, On 15 September 2025, you sent an invitation to the Formalities Officers for a meeting on 23 September, without an agenda.
This meeting is a follow-up to the previous meeting that took place on the 7th of May. It was during that meeting that the displacement of Formalities Officers roles was announced.
Our colleagues Formalities Officers need a clear, transparent roadmap developed in close collaboration with their staff representation. Moving forward, we respectfully request to start a discussion with DG1 on the following:
1. Identification of job opportunities within other units of the Office where FO colleagues’ patent-related expertise could be utilised (e.g. within DG 4/BIT, DG 0, or DG 5).
2. Update on the announced transfer of some examiner tasks to formalities officers.
3. Details on the scope of the measure, including the number of posts available and whether this concerns a broad or limited offering.
4. A clear timeline and transparent conditions under which the displacements would occur.
We reiterate our urgent call for the creation of a proper channel for dialogue on DG1 matters, and we look forward to receiving an invitation at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely yours,
Derek Kelly
Chairman of the Central Staff Committee
It is worth noting that this letter was sent to Angel Aledo Lopez, whose role is sinister (he's part of the nepotism circle of Campinos, who quit giving a f--k about his corruption being so obvious and even refers to himself as "the f--king president" because manners don't matter either). We've already mentioned Lopez in the following articles:
- 2019: Tall Tales From the Land of EPOnia: Indications of High-Level Club Med/EUIPO “Entryism”
- 2019: EPO Directors Would be Wise to Rebel Against Team Campinos While They Still Have the Job
- 2025: New Letter From the European Patent Office Explains How the Office Plots to Grant Many Illegal Patents, a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of 'Growth'
- 2025: Vice President of the European Patent Office (EPO) Complains That Techrights Gives Visibility to Legal and Technical Issues at the EPO
As long as the EPO breaks so many laws and grants European software patents - i.e. patents which are both illegal and undesirable - the EPO is a potent and active enemy of Europe. Russia uses rockets, drones and "hybrid" methods; the EPO uses white-collar corruption. About two-thirds of the EPO's customers/clients (this is what the EPO calls them) are not European. Need we mention that the EPO sent a lot of money and data to Belarus? █