Summary: An article from "De Telegraaf" (with translations) helps provide insight into Battistelli and his disgraced allies

THE EPO has had a calm week. Easter offers no major news, except some minor bits about the boards, so we wish to finally share a lot of material which needs to be meticulously documented.

Articles from "De Volkskrant" (see press coverage) and "De Telegraaf", along with multiple translations, were sent to us last month, contextually accompanying despite them preceding reports about the disgraced (over payment to drug traffickers) Ivo Opstelten. "Recent Dutch newspaper articles with translations," as one source put it, had been made available (we don't know who made the translations), with "publication date of the original articles [being] 26 Feb. 2015."

Here is the article in English, French and German [PDF]. To quote the English version in full:

Thursday 26 February 2015

Opstelten ignores Court of Appeal ruling

THE HAGUE - Minister of Justice Ivo Opstelten has binned a ruling of the Court of Appeal in The Hague. According to the Court of Appeal, the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg) breaches the rule of law. However, Opstelten states that the European organisation enjoys immunity.

Photo: Serge LIGTENBERG According to de Volkskrant.

For years there has been a conflict at the EPOrg between management and a large portion of the employees. In order to counter organised opposition, the management of the organisation has, amongst other things, blocked email communication between the unions and their members. The trade unions are also not welcome at the negotiation table.

According to the Court of Appeal, those measures are in conflict with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Court of Appeal acknowledges that the Patent Office can claim immunity but this autonomy does not stretch so far ‘that the EPOrg could breach generally recognised fundamental rights in Europe’.

"Basically," said our source for this, "the material consists of recent newspaper articles," but as we shall show in the next post, these articles were only the beginning as they soon led to a major national debate in the Netherlands and shortly thereafter Opstelten resigned in shame. It is quite miraculous that Benoît Battistelli has not resigned in shame too (not yet anyway). ⬆