Bonum Certa Men Certa

Contacting National Delegations to Complain About the European Patent Office (EPO)

Flags



Summary: The national delegations to whom the serious abuses by the European Patent Office (EPO) can -- and probably should -- be reported

THE EPO's management is apparently (if word on the street is to be believed) shielded by fear. The continued abuse is facilitated mostly by the Administrative Council, where nobody 'dares' to take the first move and challenge Team Battistelli, having already seen how Battistelli can bully delegates. We have decided to make a concise summary of the situation along with the following easy-to-follow list of contacts for anyone wishing to express an opinion and/or ask national delegations to tackle the abuses.

Starting with smaller member states (or groups) and moving towards larger ones, here we go. Some E-mails may no longer be up to date or active, so contacting several people (multiple recipients) is the safest way to ensure the messages land on the right ears. For one to contact one's officials is not political activism but an exercise in functioning democracy.

Albania



Delegates/Representatives:

elvin.lako@dppm.gov.al

elvanda.mece@dppm.gov.al

mailinf@dppm.gov.al




Bulgaria



Delegates/Representatives:

vbabaleva@bpo.bg

tnaydenova@bpo.bg

bpo@bpo.bg




Croatia



Delegates/Representatives:

ljiljana.kuterovac@dziv.hr




Cyprus



Delegates/Representatives:

skokkinos@drcor.mcit.gov.cy

eeleftheriou@drcor.mcit.gov.cy




Czech Republic



Delegates/Representatives:

jkratochvil@upv.cz

skopecka@upv.cz

posta@upv.cz




Estonia



Delegates/Representatives:

Matti.Paets@epa.ee

Margus.Viher@epa.ee




Greece



Delegates/Representatives:

ssta@obi.gr

kmar@obi.gr

info@obi.gr




Latvia



Delegates/Representatives:

guntis.ramans@lrpv.gov.lv

sandris.laganovskis@lrpv.gov.lv

valde@lrpv.lv




Lithuania



Delegates/Representatives:

rimvydas.naujokas@vpb.gov.lt

zilvinas.danys@vpb.gov.lt




Macedonia



Delegates/Representatives:

safet.emruli@ippo.gov.mk

irenaj@ippo.gov.mk




Malta



Delegates/Representatives:

godwin.warr@gov.mt

michelle.bonello@gov.mt




Monaco



Delegates/Representatives:

ekheng@gouv.mc

expansion@gouv.mc

mcpi@gouv.mc




Poland



Delegates/Representatives:

aadamczak@uprp.pl

ematysiak@uprp.pl

glachowicz@uprp.pl




Portugal



Delegates/Representatives:

leonor.trindade@inpi.pt

marco.dinis@inpi.pt




Romania



Delegates/Representatives:

ionel.muscalu@osim.ro

alexandru.strenc@osim.ro

office@osim.ro




San Marino



Delegates/Representatives:

silvia.rossi.ubm@pa.sm

b.cinquantini@ngpatent.it




Serbia



Delegates/Representatives:

btotic@zis.gov.rs

bbilenkati@zis.gov.rs

zis@zis.gov.rs




Slovakia



Delegates/Representatives:

lubos.knoth@indprop.gov.sk

lukrecia.marcokova@indprop.gov.sk

urad@indprop.gov.sk




Slovenia



Delegates/Representatives:

Vesna.StankovicJuricic@uil-sipo.si

Ales.orazem@uil-sipo.si

h.zalaznik@uil-sipo.si

sipo@uil-sipo.si




Turkey



Delegates/Representatives:

habip.asan@turkpatent.gov.tr

akocer@turkpatent.gov.tr

info@turkpatent.gov.tr




Belgium



L'Office belge de la Propriété intellectuelle (OPRI) SPF Economie, P.M.E., Classes moyennes et Energie City Atrium C Rue du Progrès, 50 B-1210 Brussels, BELGIUM Ms. Sabine Laruelle http://www.laruelle.belgium.be/fr/equipe-et-contact http://www.sabinelaruelle.be/homepage info@laruelle.fgov.be

Delegates/Representatives:

jerome.debrulle@economie.fgov.be

geoffrey.bailleux@mineco.fgov.be




Netherlands



NL Octrooicentrum Ministerie van Economische Zaken Bezuidenhoutseweg 73 postbus 20401 NL- 2500 EK, Den Haag NEDERLANDS Mr. Henk Kamp http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/regering/bewindspersonen/henk-kamp

Assistant: b.becker@minez.nl Spokespersons: b.visser@minez.nl P.vanStrien@minez.nl t.d.vanes@minez.nl

Delegates/Representatives:

derk-jan.degroot@agentschapnl.nl

p.h.m.vanbeukering@minez.nl




Luxembourg



Office de la propriété intellectuelle Ministère de l’Economie et du Commerce extérieur 19-21, boulevard Royal L-2914 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG Mr. Etienne Schneider http://www.eco.public.lu/ministere/ministre/index.html

etienne.schneider@eco.etat.lu minister@eco.etat.lu Secretary: catherine.lammar@eco.etat.lu

Delegates/Representatives:

lex.kaufhold@eco.etat.lu

claude.sahl@eco.etat.lu




UK



Intellectual Property Office Department for Business Innovation & Skills 1 Victoria Street London SW1H 0ET UNITED KINGDOM Dr. Vince Cable https://www.gov.uk/government/people/vince-cable

enquiries@bis.gsi.gov.uk cablev@parliament.uk

Delegates/Representatives:

john.alty@ipo.gov.uk sean.dennehey@ipo.gov.uk




Ireland



Irish Patents Office Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, 23 Kildare Street, Dublin 2 IRELAND Mr. Richard Bruton http://www.djei.ie/corporate/ministersoffice/richardbruton.htm minister@djei.ie

Delegates/Representatives:

gerard.barrett@patentsoffice.ie




France



Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle (INPI) Ministère de l’Économie, des Finances et du Commerce extérieur 139, rue de Bercy F-75572 Paris Cedex 12 FRANCE Mr. Emmanuel Macron http://www.economie.gouv.fr/le-ministere/emmanuel-macron

Delegates/Representatives:

ylapierre@inpi.fr

fclaireau@inpi.fr

contact@inpi.fr




Italy



Ufficio Italiano Brevetti e Marchi (UIBM) Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico Uffici del Ministro Via Veneto 33 IT-00187 Roma ITALIA Ms. Federica Guidi http://www.sviluppoeconomico.gov.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&idmenu=3315 segreteria.ministro@mise.gov.it

Delegates/Representatives:

mauro.masi@consap.it

loredana.gulino@mise.gov.it




Spain



Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas (OEPM) Ministerio de Industria, Energía y Turismo P€º de la Castellana 160. ES-28046 Madrid ESPAÑA Dr. José Manuel Soria López http://www.minetur.gob.es/es-ES/Ministro/Biografia/Paginas/CV_Ministro.aspx secretaria.ministro@mityc.es

Delegates/Representatives:

patricia.garcia-escudero@oepm.es

pedro.cartagena@oepm.es




Germany



Deutsches Marken- und Patentamt (DPMA) Bundesministerium der Justiz (BMJ) Mohrenstraße 37 D-10117 Berlin DEUTSCHLAND Mr. Heiko Maas http://www.bmjv.de/DE/Ministerium/Hausleitung/Minister/_node.html mail@heiko-maas.de poststelle@bmj.bund.de

Delegates/Representatives:

ernst-ch@bmj.bund.de

info@dpma.de




Switzerland



Eidgenössisches Institut für Geistiges Eigentum Eidgenössischen Justiz- und Polizeidepartement (EJPD) Bundeshaus West CH-3003 Bern SCHWEIZ Ms. Simonetta Sommaruga http://www.ejpd.admin.ch/ejpd/de/home/ueber-uns/dv.html simonetta.sommaruga@gs-ejpd.admin.ch simonetta.sommaruga@parl.ch

Delegates/Representatives:

roland.grossenbacher@ipi.ch

christian.bock@metas.ch

info@ipi.ch




Liechtenstein



Eidgenössisches Institut für Geistiges Eigentum Ministerium für Inneres, Justiz und Wirtschaft Postfach 684 9490 Vaduz LIECHTENSTEIN Dr. Thomas Zwiefelhofer http://www.regierung.li/ministerien/wirtschaft/mitarbeitende-kontakt/ thomas@zwiefelhofer.net Assistant: Simon.Biedermann@regierung.li

Delegates/Representatives:

Sabine.Monauni@llv.li

Esther.Schindler@llv.li

ute.hammermann@avw.llv.li

info@avw.llv.li




Austria



Österreichisches Patentamt Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie (BMVIT) Radetzkystraße 2 A-1030 Wien ÖSTERREICH Mr. Alois Stöger http://www.bmvit.gv.at/ alois.stoeger@spoe.at

Delegates/Representatives:

friedrich.roedler@patentamt.at

andrea.scheichl@patentamt.at

info@patentamt.at




Hungary



Hungarian Intellectual Property Office Ministry of Public Administration and Justice Kossuth Lajos tér 2-4. HU-1055 Budapest HUNGARY Dr. Tibor Navracsics http://www.kormany.hu/en/ministry-of-public-administration-and-justice/the-minister info@kim.gov.hu intcomm@me.gov.hu

Delegates/Representatives:

miklos.bendzsel@hipo.gov.hu

mihaly.ficsor@hipo.gov.hu

elnokseg@hipo.gov.hu




Denmark



Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO) Ministry for Business and Growth Slotsholmsgade 10-12 DK-1216 København K DENMARK Mr. Henrik Sass Larsen http://www.evm.dk/english/the-minister evm@evm.dk Press Secretary smn@evm.dk

Delegates/Representatives:

jko@dkpto.dk

arj@dkpto.dk

mlr@dkpto.dk

knj@dkpto.dk

pbp@dkpto.dk

pvs@dkpto.dk




Sweden



Swedish Patent and Registration Office Ministry of Justice Rosenbad 4 SE-103 33 Stockholm SWEDEN Ms. Beatrice Ask http://www.government.se/sb/d/7567 beatrice.ask@gov.se Justitiedepartementet.registrator@regeringskansliet.se

Delegates/Representatives:

susanne.sivborg@prv.se

per.holmstrand@prv.se

Update: Beatrice Ask is no longer minister of justice, it's Morgan Johansson. Best way of contacting is via registrator of department of justice: ju.registrator@regeringskansliet.se




Finland



National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland (NBPR) Ministry of Employment and the Economy P.O. Box 32 FI-00023 GOVERNMENT FINLAND Mr. Jan Vapaavuori Minister of Economic Affairs http://www.tem.fi/index.phtml?l=en&s=2297 jan.vapaavuori@tem.fi

Secretary:

jonna.sjogren@tem.fi

Delegates/Representatives:

rauni.hagman@prh.fi

jorma.hanski@prh.fi




Norway



The Norwegian Industrial Property Office (NIPO) Ministry of Trade and Industry P.O.Box 8114 Dep., N-0030 Oslo NORWAY Monica Mæland, Minister of Trade and Industry http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/nfd/about-the-ministry/minister-of-trade-and-industry-monica-ma.html?id=742948 postmottak@nfd.dep.no

Delegates/Representatives:

pfo@patentstyret.no

jsa@patentstyret.no




Iceland



Icelandic Patent Office Ministry of Industries and Innovation Skulagotu 4 150 Reykjavík Iceland Ragnheiður Elín Árnadóttir Minister of Industry and Commerce http://eng.atvinnuvegaraduneyti.is/ministers/nr/6748 rea@althingi.is postur@anr.is

Delegates/Representatives:

borghildur@els.is

elfa@els.is




If we have left something or someone out, or if an inclusion of an entry is out of date, please let us know in the comments below.

Once upon a time someone spoke of the "Broken Governance of the European Patent Organisation", noting that "several members of the Administration Board of the European Patent Organisation are the national patent offices themselves!"

At the time, things were different and not the same persons involved.

Nevertheless, back then the list of representatives at the Administrative Council of the EPO highlighted the fact that the Executive was also the Legislator:

BE: Office de la Propriété Intellectuelle BG: Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria CZ: Industrial Property Office of the Czech Republic DK: Danish Patent and Trademark Office EE: Estonian Patent Office ES: Department, Spanish Patent and Trademark Office FI: National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland FR: Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle UK: UK Intellectual Property Office GR: Industrial Property Organisation (OBI) HU: Hungarian Patent Office HR: State Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Croatia IE: Irish Patents Office IS: Icelandic Patent Office IT: Office italien des brevets et des marques LT: The State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania LV: Latvian Patent Office NL: Netherlands Patent Office NO: Norwegian Industrial Property Office PL: Patent Office of the Republic of Poland PT: National Institute of Industrial Property RO: State Office for Inventions and Trademarks SE: Swedish Patent and Registration Office SI: Slovenian Intellectual Property Office SK: Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic TR: Turkish Patent Institute


Three questions were raised at the time:

  1. Does the Council recognise that there is lack of separation of powers between the legislative powers and the executive powers in the European Patent Organisation?


  2. How does the Council view the separation of powers between the legislative and the executive powers in the future European Patent System?


  3. How does the Council view the fact that the same lack of separation of powers may happen inside its own institution?


That was written a long time ago, but it was rather prophetic because we still see some overlap between the legislative and executive powers. This in its own right is a subject which merits open debate.

Recent Techrights' Posts

"How Many Friends Do You Have?"
"Do bots count?" "Friends in Facebook?" "Does a girlfriend chatbot count as a friend?"
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Responds to Crises Only After It's Way Too Late
The SRA does not do its job. The new chief's job is face-saving PR in the media.
The Techrights Team Makes the Platform Faster
The infrastructure is already fast
France Does Not Need Digital Weapons Disguised as Social and as Media
French people lost interest in Social Control 'Media' (or Networks)
 
Links 18/02/2026: DMCA Weakened, Anna’s Archive Still Thriving
Links for the day
Links 18/02/2026: Gig 'Economy' Condemned, Microsoft Insulting/Stressing People With False Slop Predictions
Links for the day
Twitter Falling to 1% in Africa's Largest Nation (Algeria)
About 15 years ago the regime in Egypt got toppled (and others had been too) partly because of social control media such as Twitter
Mozilla Firefox Died in Afghanistan
Mozilla has been a complete disaster
Gemini Links 18/02/2026: Astronomy and Texinfo
Links for the day
Are IBM CEO and IBM CFO Ready for Financial Audit That Topples the Shares by 50% in One Day?
The same "chefs" that cooked up Kyndryl Holdings Inc are still in charge of the IBM kitchen
"Senior AI Reporter" at Slop Technica/Ars Sloppica Has Written Nothing in Nearly a Week, Did Conde Nast Suspend Him for Fake Articles With Fake Quotes?
Slop Technica/Ars Sloppica is having a serious credibility issue right now
Linux Foundation Puts Slop Images, Not Just Slop Text, in Linux.com
More of the same then
The Register MS Paid-for 'Articles' (Ads) Seem to be LLM Slop Again
If it's true that The Register MS is resorting to these marketing tactics, will they later delete the evidence (as they did months ago)?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 17, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Microsoft Had Mass Layoffs Every Month Last Year, This Year It's Delaying a Lot to "Prove" Rumours That Crashed Its Stock... 'Wrong'
Building a bigger snowball for later
Red Hat Is Not a Company Anymore, Amid Bluewashing and Mass Layoffs It's Merely IBM "Division" or "Brand" or "Product"
systemd at this point is sort of like IBM/Microsoft thing
IBM suffers "worst weekly drop in six years", Microsoft's MSN calls it "buying opportunity"
Ask Cramer what to do
Still Some Slopfarms in View, Sometimes Targetting "Linux"
That's a total of at least 4 in Google News today, coming from 3 sources
Gemini Links 17/02/2026: 3D-Printed Stainless Steel Smartwatch and Gopher Bay Offline
Links for the day
Links 17/02/2026: Machine Rage and Microsoft Kills XBox Social Clubs
Links for the day
EPO "Productivity" Will Fall Off a Cliff If Examiners Stick to the European Patent Convention (EPC) and Follow the Real Rules
The EPO's "Cocaine Communication Manager" would hate to see the next "productivity" metrics
The Problem is Not Technology, the Problem is Really Bad Things Sold or Imposed as "Tech" (Like a Religion Built Around Technology)
Don't hate technology, hate the corporations that abuse it to promote coercion, exploitation etc.
Resisting IBM and EPO Corruption
Rise up against EPO dictatorship next week
Where Slop Meets Ghostwriting: It's a False Analogy
It's a false analogy
Links 17/02/2026: Why OpenClaw is Very Sleazy and Ars Technica Exposed as Hub of LLM Slop (Credibility Destroyed Overnight)
Links for the day
Benj Edwards (Ars Technica) Used Fake Articles to Promote Ponzi Scheme for Conde Nast and Its Client (Marketing)
What Ars Technica and Conde Nast do here helps defraud the general public
Slop Technica: Ars Technica Seems Like Repeat Offender, a Part-Time Slopfarm
The culprits are repeat offenders, but the publisher will never admit this in public
Only One in 50 Saudis Would Use Microsoft for Search, Almost Same as Would Use Russia's Yandex
If statCounter is to be trusted
Microsoft's "AI" Concerns Are All Indian (or Low-Paid Workers Who Work Extra Hours Unpaid)
portraying charlatans and frauds like they're some kind of visionaries and luminaries
Microsoft Turned Bing Into Censorship Machine of China, But Bing Is Pegged at a Mere 2% in Asia, Yandex is Bigger
Expect many Bing layoffs some time soon (like in past years)
Just Like The Register MS, Conde Nast's Ars Technica Has Just Publicly Admitted That It Published Fake Articles (Slop) Made by LLMs About Serious Subjects
Conde Nast might shut Ars Technica down to escape the bad publicity/association
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Way Too Slow to Respond to Financial Fraud at Law Firms, in Effect Helping Those Law Firms Defraud Many More People (Fleecing Clients)
Who will hold the SRA accountable for this?
Techrights Became a Hub for News That IBM/Red Hat Doesn't Want You to See (and Pays Mainstream Media to Distract From)
the more viciously the notorious organisation attacks the reporter, the greater the interest in what the reporter has to say
EPO's Central Staff Committee on Fourth Technical Meeting, Two Days Before First of (At Least) 4 Winter Strikes at the Second-Largest European Institution
“future orientations on the salary adjustment procedure”
IBM's Collapse Continues, Half of EU Countries to Have Mass Layoffs, "IBM Clearly Disinvests From Europe" Says IBM European Works Council
Recent publication
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 16, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, February 16, 2026
Gemini Links 17/02/2026: Alpenglow Industries' Closure and Gemini Server Issues
Links for the day
The Southern California Linux Expo (“SCALE”) or SCALE 23x Becomes Microsoft
It's not supporting the event, it is buying it.
Where Microsoft's Bing Cannot Even Reach 1% "Market Share"
Looking at "I" countries
Microsoft to Focus on Name-Dropping Buzzwords to Distract From Declining Business, IBM RAs (Layoffs) With Staff Stack-Ranked
Calling everything cloud or reclassifying as "AI"
Another EPO Strike One Week From Now, Local Staff Committee Munich to Discuss It This Week
Campinos MIA while Office staff goes on strike at least 4 times
Links 16/02/2026: Barack Obama Responds to Racist Cheeto and Benjamin Mako Hill Studies Online Communities
Links for the day
Gemini Links 16/02/2026: Task Completed by Avoidance and "Playing Again With Akkoma"
Links for the day
Happy Birthday (or Anniversary) to SoylentNews
"Happy Birthday SoylentNews"
Techrights' Architecture
Stability is the main goal
IBM Reduces the Thresholds for Acceptance (and the Salaries)
Are chatbots good enough as IBM staff?
When It Comes to Rust, Keep All the Eyes on the Ball (Technical and Legal Perils, Sustainability Questions)
It's not about security or politics
Linux Foundation Continues Falling Off a Cliff in Geminispace
Gemini Protocol will turn 7 this summer
Links 16/02/2026: cURL’s Daniel Stenberg Asserts That Slop is DDoSing Free Software, But Still Uses a Plagiarism and GPL-Violating Blender (Microsoft GitHub)
Links for the day
The Techrights Community Never Needed Money, Only Goodwill
We accomplish things by a track record of suppressed facts
"AboutCode" is a Microsoft Proxy and Microsoft's Acquisition of the OSI Advances Via OSI Moles
presenting direct evidence anybody can verify
Social Control Media is Just a Digital Weapon
Social control media is not social and not media
They Will Call Smart People "Luddites"
Is society "seeing the light"?
Microsoft Amutable Already Reveals That Its Focus Is Not Linux, It'll Promote "Remote Attestation"
This is basically an attack on Software Freedom, even if they toss around the brand "Linux"
More People in Chad Move to GNU/Linux
Last year we began to see GNU/Linux rising there - a trend which continues this year
Dr. Andy Farnell on How Universities and Culture of Education Got Crushed by "Technofascist Nightmare"
Farnell says he "already soft-quit in [his] mind"
Debt of Broadcom Grew by More Than 50%, Broadcom is Deeper in Debt Than Google
Expect many more cuts
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 15, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, February 15, 2026