Bonum Certa Men Certa

Germany-Based Focus Online is Apparently Covering Up Cocaine Use at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, the European Patent Office

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 17, 2025,
updated Nov 17, 2025

Focus (German magazine)

Yesterday: German Media and German Politicians: Working for the Public or Manipulating the Public?

A couple of days ago: BILD is Apparently Covering Up Cocaine Use at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, the European Patent Office, as It's Based on Germany

A few days ago: Prominent German Media Dares Not Mention Cocaine at the European Patent Office, Germany's "Cash Cow" (Seller of Monopolies for the Whole of Europe)

Earlier this month: How German Media Covered Cocainegate at The European Patent Office (EPO)

The European Patent Office (EPO) is reeling. It cannot quite recover from Cocainegate [1, 2]. It hopes people won't notice or simply forget (if they've already noticed). But it's not going to work. The matter is here to stay.

We, collectively, need to press the issue, first to "the press", then to politicians. "Forcing" this issue is essential for democracy and for the Rule of Law. Because the leadership of the EPO right now resembles organised crime, not leadership.

Almost a week ago I wrote to Focus Online "Re: Major story missed" (referring to the EPO connection to a report). It wasn't formulated only by me, it was put together by interested parties:

Hi,

The Oktoberfest "cocaine bust" was mentioned by Focus Online which referred to the original BILD report. https://www.focus.de/panorama/oktoberfest/wiesn-fahnder-erwischen-spanier-in-flagranti-der-muss-40-000-euro-zahlen_d7c43efd-efb5-4507-862b-d7293f3e212d.html

As in the case of the original BILD report, the Focus Online account does not contain any mention of the EPO connection. It is very likely the the journalists were not aware of this aspect because the "Spaniard" seems to have passed himself off to the Bavarian police as a "tourist".

There is no individual name on the article about the Oktoberfest which is attributed to the Focus Online "editorial team" ("Redaktion").

It should be noted that the person caught was a high-level EPO official, so can the topic be revisited?

See http://techrights.org/n/2025/11/01/The_Cocaine_Patent_Office_Part_III_European_Patent_Office_Offic.shtml

They never got back to me. Nothing.

"Focus Online is the website of the German weekly news magazine "Focus"," we're told, but some more sites covered the bust without taking note of the EPO connection. We'll contact some more sites next.

If media owned by billionaires chooses what to cover and what not to cover based on the personal interests/preferences of the owner, then there's no effective chain of accountability, no "four pillars" (or five).

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

All-Time Lows for Windows in Spain and Portugal
data which became publicly available less than 24 hours ago in statCounter
 
Links 03/05/2026: Insolvent US Bailing Out Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, Oracle, OpenAI, and SpaceX
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 65 Out of 200: Graveley and Garrett Claims Are Word-by-Word Similar (They Also Collaborated All Along)
We'll keep it short today
IBM Has a Long and Rich History of Showing Chatbots Bear No Business Prospects (From Jeopardy to Watson Healthcare and McDonalds)
Watson Healthcare is already in the dustpan, so they are rebranding it again
Europe Decoupling is Bad News for GAFAM, Especially Bad to Microsoft
Countries want independence
India Needs to Recognise That the World Wide Web is Monoculture in India
In the US, a judge with Indian roots dealt with a case related to this; why won't India?
All-Time Lows for Windows Down Under
seeing the demise of Windows in Australia (historically a slow or low adopter of GNU/Linux) is good news
Linux Kernel Tainted by Software Patents That Make Linux Worse and the 'Linux' Foundation is Compiling Bribes to Enable This (Promotion of Monopolies and Tolerance of Software Patenting)
Why you need to reboot when a serious bug is found in Linux? "Licencing"...
IBM's Kyndryl Accounting Fraud Explained and More Recently the Insiders Talk About Mass Layoffs
Judging by how the media totally ignored 800+ layoffs at IBM's Confluent and 400+ layoffs at Red Hat a few weeks ago don't expect to hear anything about Kyndryl layoffs
Links 03/05/2026: Water Shortages Crises and Slop Fakes "Are Coming for Your Bank Account" (Slop-Enabled Fraud)
Links for the day
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XI - EPO 'Products' to Cement Asian and American Monopolies
Only a fool would believe Lame Duck Campinos
Microsoft Windows Falls Below 9% in South Africa
As one can expect, GNU/Linux is measured as going up in France
Gemini Links 03/05/2026: The Black Side of the Web, LiveJournal, Chimarrão
Links for the day
A Month Since Mass Layoffs at Red Hat (400+ Engineers Laid Off), The Media Didn't Cover It
We are very concerned about the state of the media
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 02, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, May 02, 2026
Gemini Links 02/05/2026: Strange Psychosis and TUIs
Links for the day
Links 02/05/2026: Microsoft Has Begun Rebranding Vista 11 as 'XBox' (Because the Console is Dying), Slop Rejected by Oscars
Links for the day
IBM's CEO 10 Years Ago in IBM-Sponsored Forbes: "For those willing to embrace [blockchains], the future will indeed be bright."
How well did this prediction materialise?
SLAPP Censorship - Part 64 Out of 200: Not Amused by Repeated Threats (to "Shut Down" My "Existence" While Mentioning My Wife Too)
it's about censorship
RightsCon Cancellation as a Data Point in a World Gone Astray
RightsCon should not even be controversial
The NHS is Under Attack by Anthropic and Microsoft (or Their Lemmings That Infect the NHS)
They are kidding themselves if they seriously believe Web-facing source code repositories are the real threat to patients
cPanel is Not Linux, cPanel is Proprietary Software
It's fair to say I've used cPanel for 23 years
Links 02/05/2026: Gen Z is Turning Against Slop and OpenAI/Microsoft Rift Explained
Links for the day
Storage and Memory Prices Are Rising Not Because of High Demand (Production Can Match Demand), It's Partly Because of Price-Fixing (Same as Food Price Increases)
Sophisticated robberies are still robberies
Thousands of Layoffs at IBM, So IBM Pays Mainstream Media to Claim That IBM is Hiring (Paid Lies)
This is a story about the media failing us, not just IBM failing as a company
A Look at DataStax Bluewashing (IBM and Layoffs)
IBM is a place that many people leave or get pushed out of
Gemini Links 02/05/2026: Leaving Session, Alhena 5.5.7, and Slop Failing Customers
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 01, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, May 01, 2026
Links 01/05/2026: Microsoft 'Headcount' Decreasing, Apple Quietly Killing Vision Pro
Links for the day
Oracle's Debt Grew by Over 50 Billion Dollars in 6 Months
Larry Ellison spent a lot of money buying a lot of the corporate media
In Praise of Debian
30 hours ago we began an upgrade
What Linus (Torvalds, the Linux Dude) Meant by "Show Me the Code"
"Show Me the Code" is a common cultural reference
Yes, GNU/Linux Can Run on Playstation 5, But Don't Buy It, Learn From Sony's Past of Rootkit and PS3 Betrayal
Millions of Playstation 3 owners will never forget what Sony did to them
XBox Will Not Last Much Longer, XBox Chief Admits Problems
Microsoft's latest "results"
Dealing With Demagogue in Free Software
Don't spread their ideology and never participate in any of their projects
What May 1 Means to Us (and to Many Others)
To me, May 1 means something
Microsoft Lunduke is 'Pulling a Garrett' by Turning Technical and Legal Debate Over Rust Into a 'Trans Debate'
Don't fall for the demagogue
Links 01/05/2026: Regulatory Trouble for Apple, Now Even Mozilla Pushes Back Against Google
Links for the day
Microsoft "Buyout" Offer is Less Than One Year's Salary
So our assumption about this was correct
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part X - European Patent Office Managers Have Crossed Red Lines, According to Themselves
The girlfriend of the President of the European Patent Office (EPO) is trying to muzzle EPO critics
Techrights is Still Growing, Attacking Techrights Does Not Weaken the Community
Bullying us for 2+ years does not result in fear, it results in us feeling more emboldened and motivated
SLAPP Censorship - Part 63 Out of 200: Graveley as a Stripped-Down Version of Garrett in the Particulars of Claim (5RB Barrister Could Do This in One Minute)
Lazily and sloppily, it looks like the barrister took Garrett's claims and tweaked them a little (shortened) for Graveley
Lots of People Leave IBM, Today IBM Has About 1,000 Workers Fewer Than Yesterday
Confluent "last day" for 800+ people
Been a Very Busy Week
Next week, as we have no upgrades to prepare for, we should be able to publish at the usual pace of 20+ pages per day
In New Letter Sent to Chair and Heads of Delegation of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation the Staff Union Explains How to End European Patent Office Strikes
If Campinos continues to behave as he does right now, the Council can show him the door
Links 01/05/2026: Poems and Continuous Privacy Policy
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 30, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, April 30, 2026
Microsoft Debt Rose Almost $50 Billion Since We Moved to Debian
GAFAM has a new name for debt