Challenges for EPO Insiders to Try to Tackle in 2026

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 27, 2025,
updated Dec 27, 2025

Nothing will get solved as long as the circus that runs this show tries to keep the circus going and illegal activities covered up

For EPO workers, most of whom study patent applications or search existing patents, it's not hard to see things aren't working. They fail examiners, they fail applicants, they fail Europe, and they breach laws. It's just a stoned extravaganza based around money - even if that money is derived from unlawful activity disguised as "law". Remember that law firms that engage in lawfare (even if firms don't advertise themselves as "hired guns" but as "reputation management") don't practice the law - they merely bend or misuse it.

António Campinos could lose his job this coming year. There's a lot coming his way and "Cocainegate" isn't just going away.

But there are many issues we urge insiders to strive to tackle, to the extent feasible while not jeopardising one's livelihood (salary):

1. European Patents are granted based on too broad a criterion/spectrum - to the point of allowing patents on nature and mathematics (even if they call it "hey hi").
2. Salaries go down, assuring the quality of newly-recruited or remaining (not departing) examiners will go down, which relates to point (1) above.
3. There is no real Rule of Law or a properly-functioning tribunals system; the dictator overrules or supersedes decisions. This is the opposite of law.
4. Nobody outside the EPO subjects the EPO to any scrutiny, not even the media.
5. People who run the Office do not understand how patents work; they get hired based on friendships and kinships. This is corruption.

There are many more applicable points, but a handful is catchy enough.

Now, let's resume the series. █