Bonum Certa Men Certa

Loose Data 'Protection' and Likely Privacy Infringements at the EPO: Here's Who Gets Employees' Internal Data

'Public' office, privately connected

Europatis form



Summary: Another look at Europatis, the company of a former EPO Vice-President (VP1), which is now accessing staff details at the EPO

This morning we wrote about the latest active venture of Jacques Michel, which we now know receives private information (internal data) from the EPO. Several people who used to work for the EPO still act as though they are inside the EPO, even though they run a private (for-profit) company. Talk about conflict of interests! They magically enough, owing to professional connections, get data about every member of staff at the EPO. This truly helps illustrative the hypocrisy of Team Battistelli.



Source for the numbers noted this morning: SOCIETE

"The main issue we have with Europatis right now is that it serves to show just how weak data protection is.""That sounds like it's just enough to provide a net income to feed one," wrote one person to us, "or maybe two, people, but it's hardly anything more of a mom-and-pop operation that occasionally rescues the freelancing retired examiner from terminal boredom. Not a big deal really, and this type of work is needed during both for the initial drafting of patent applications and for finding killer prior art for busting granted patents. They are not in competition with the EPO. Other groups such as professional patent researchers and registered IP counsels might have something to say, but that's another issue."

The main issue we have with Europatis right now is that it serves to show just how weak data protection is. The EPO already spies on staff with keyloggers and hidden cameras, so passing staff data in bulk ('wholesale' so to speak) probably shouldn't be so shocking.

"As to the data protection," wrote to us a reader, "people do keep in touch, and you generally know who is currently fetching his coat. In the present situation, that's certainly a heck of a lot of people -- and of coats.

"The EPO already spies on staff with keyloggers and hidden cameras, so passing staff data in bulk ('wholesale' so to speak) probably shouldn't be so shocking.""It's probably like those insistent headhunters who always ask you whether you might know anyone else might be interested in that "super" job in Milwaukee or suburban Ulaanbaatar they unsuccessfully tried to hook you with. And you happily oblige by warmly recommending a colleague you're not particularly fond of, hoping that both the headhunter and the colleague get the message."

As we noted this morning, neither Europatis nor the data passage is the big deal; there is an even bigger story involving Jacques Michel. We are going to cover this story in the coming week, in conjunction with the "Insensitivity at the EPO's Management" series. For those who want to know who's behind the company with access to internal EPO data, here is a document from 2009 converted into text, followed by another. Nothing too personal there, just registration details. It's only fair for EPO staff to know who's gaining access to some of their personal details (such as E-mail), potentially for personal gain.

0907399703

DATE DEPOT : 2009-08-31 NUMERO DE DEPOT : 73997 N€° GESTION : 2009B16103 N€° SIREN : 514485788 DENOMINATION : EUROPATIS ADRESSE : 61 rue des Morillons 75015 PARIS DATE D'ACTE : 2009/08/04 TYPE D’ACTE : DECISION DES ASSOCIES NATURE DACTE : NOMINATION DE GERANT(S)




EUROPATIS

Société à responsabilité limitée au capital de 4 000 euros

61 rue des Morillons

75015 PARIS

Les soussignés :

M onsieur Jacques MICHEL Né le 30 octobre 1937 à Reims (51) De nationalité française Dem eurant 61 rue des Morillons à Paris (75015) Marié sous le régime de la communauté

Madame Geneviève ALIGON épouse MICHEL Née le 23 novembre 1939 à Argenteuil (95) De nationalité française Demeurant 61 rue des Morillons à Paris (75015) Mariée sous le régime de la communauté

M. Laurent MICHEL Né le 24 décembre 1974 à Genève (Suisse) De nationalité française Demeurant 11 rue du Bois Fourgon à Villeconin (91580) Marié sous le régime de séparation de biens

se sont réunis à l'issue de la signature des statuts de la société EUROPATIS, pour désigner d'un commun accord le prem ier gérant de la société, conformément aux dispositions de l'article 10 des statuts de ladite société.

A cet effet, il est convenu de ce qui suit :

NOMINATION P U GÉRANT Les soussignés nomment en qualité de gérant de la société : - Monsieur Jacques MICHEL, demeurant 61 rue des Morillons à PARIS (75015) pour une durée illimitée.




Monsieur Jacques MICHEL n'entrera effectivement en fonction qu'à partir du jour où la société aura été immatriculée au Registre du Commerce et des Sociétés.

Monsieur Jacques MICHEL déclare accepter les fonctions de gérant qui viennent de lui être confiées. Il affirme n'exercer aucune autre fonction et n'être frappé d'aucune incapacité ou interdiction susceptible de l'empêcher d'exercer ce mandat.

RÉMUNÉRATION DU GÉRANT Le gérant ne percevra aucune rémunération. Il aura droit au remboursement de ses frais dûment justifiés engagés dans l'intérêt de la société.

Fait à Paris, le 4 août 2009 en trois originaux, deux pour les dépôts légaux et un pour les archives sociales.

M. Jacques MICHEL M. Laurent MICHEL Mme Geneviève ALIGON








0907399702

DATE DEPOT : 2009-08-31 NUMERO DE DEPOT: 73997 N€° GESTION : 2009B16103 N€° SIREN : 514485788 DENOMINATION : EUROPATIS ADRESSE : 61 rue des Morillons 75015 PARIS DATE D’ACTE : 2009/07/27 TYPE D’ACTE : ACTE NATURE D’ACTE : ATTESTATION BANCAIRELISTE DES SOUSCRIPTEURS




Banque Transatlantique

CREATION DE S.A.R.L. ATTESTATION DE BLOCAGE DU CAPITAL SOCIAL

La BANQUE TRANSATLANTIQUE sise 26 Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt, 75008 PARIS déclare et atteste avoir reçu la somme de EUR. 4.000,00.

Monsieur Jacques MICHEL, gérante de la SARL €«EUROPATIS€» actuellement en cours de formation dont le siège social se situe 61 rue des Morillons 75015 PARIS, déclare, sous sa seule responsabilité, que cette somme représente la totalité du capital souscrit et libéré immédiatement.

Associés : M . Jacques MICHEL pour 2.000 parts soit 2.000 € de capital versé, Mme Geneviève MICHEL née ALIGON pour 100 parts soit 100 € de capital versé, M. Laurent MICHEL 1.900 parts pour 1.900 € de capital versé.

Nombre de parts : 4.000 Montant versé : 4.000,00 €

En conséquence, conformément aux dispositions législatives en vigueur, la somme ci-dessus demeurera bloquée en compte n€° 30568/19918/000/23365501/59 jusqu'à production du certificat d’immatriculation au Registre du Commerce et des Sociétés de la société actuellement en voie de formation. A défaut de ce certificat, elle pourra être débloquée, conformément à l'article L223-8 du Code de commerce :

- soit entre les mains du mandataire qui sera désigné par l'associé unique - soit sur décision de justice passée en force de chose jugée

La présente attestation est établie en double exemplaire pour faire valoir ce que de droit.

Fait à Paris, le 27 juillet 2009

Le déposant ("lu et approuvé") signature



Recent Techrights' Posts

Symptom of Publishers Dying: They Move to Adopt Slop. Symptom of Software Companies Dying: They Move to Adopt Slop ('Vibe').
It'll always fail. It's hype. It's a bubble.
Under IBM, Red Hat Replaces Code With LLM Slop, Fedora is Slopware
Not even hiding it, those things are in plain sight
"systemd is essentially a corporate IBM/Redhat project and corporations of course will comply"
Microsoft and IBM care about users' freedom like Cheeto Lump cares about the US Constitution
Gemini Links 20/03/2026: Digital Identity Bifurcation and a "Return to Gemini"
Links for the day
 
The EPO's Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) Explains to the Administrative Council (AC) How Bad Things Have Become at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, Biggest Patent Office, and Corruption/Cocaine Hub (Jobs Sold to Friends)
We'll say a bit more tomorrow
IBM's Red Hat Diversity: Only 3 Women (Out of 11 Leaders)
For comparison's sake, the FSF is about 50% female
Gemini Links 20/03/2026: Depictions of Culture and The Social Smolnet
Links for the day
SimilarWeb Was Never a Reliable Yardstick for Traffic
5RB may need some "house-cleaning"
Strangulation, suffocation, Jonathan Carter & Debian toxic culture confirmed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Reports or Hearsay Suggest Ogilvy Broke Up With IBM and Insiders Report Mass Layoffs in "Infrastructure" (Might Impact Red Hat Entrants)
hearsay in Social Control Media
Scheduled Server Maintenance Tomorrow Night
Starting 9PM
None of the Above (NotA) & Debian snubbing Sruthi Chandran
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/03/2026: Cryptography Pioneers Win Turing Award and BMG Sues Anthropic for Copyright Infringement
Links for the day
Even Uganda Understands That Journalists Never Belong in Prison
"Ugandan authorities must respect the spirit of this ruling and abandon any measures that seek to jail Ugandans for the free flow of ideas."
Inaction Helps Your Enemies
Without freedom, there's nothing else left
Windows Down From 99% to ~50% in Republic of Seychelles (République des Seychelles)
Windows fell by a lot
Confluent Insiders: IBM Laid Over Over 800 at Confluent, Not Just 800
For the record, the layoffs at Confluent won't be over. After the bluewashing there will be "IBM RAs" impacting Confluent folks, aside from PIPs
The Layoffs at IBM Carry on (Shades of Enron)
Is IBM another Enron?
"IBM boss Arvind Krishna... financial package valued at $38 million in calendar 2025 - equivalent to the average collective pay of 765 Big Blue workers."
continues to ruin the company to enrich himself while pretending he has a strategy
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 19, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, March 19, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 16 Out of 200: Detailing the Actors and Explaining Techrights' Own Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Network
For those who have not followed our story
Microsoft "hiding behind bigger news of war, Epstein, other companies' layoffs"
They know what's coming, they just don't know when
Joerg Jaspert (Debian Account Manager/DAM) personally approved Raphael Hertzog's wife Sophie Brun
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Letter 'A' prohibited by Code of Conduct extremism
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Spoiler: Diversity & Debian means different things to different people
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Admits Failures and Criticism of Inaction on SLAPPs
many if not all solicitors and solicitor firms in the UK are in effect unregulated
Archiving or Preserving Pages About IBM Layoffs
Layoffs at IBM and the media does not talk about these
ABC, the American National Broadcaster, "Now Publishes Slop"
If the "big media" absorbs slop, it'll no longer be trusted and therefore not read/watched by the public
Links 19/03/2026: Culling Deepfakes of Artists’ Music and "Age Verification Isn’t the Answer"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/03/2026: "Aktion GPT-4" and "Kill All Descendants"
Links for the day
"AI" 15 Times in Short 'Article' From The Register MS. And The Register MS Got Paid to Publish It.
gets paid to do this
People Who Decided to Boycott Novell Over Its Microsoft Alliance Should Also Boycott Canonical
As an associate put it, "selling out further, due to Microsoft moles inside Canonical"
Links 19/03/2026: "AI Glasses" as Euphemism for Mass Surveillance and ABC (US) Has Begun Publishing Slop as 'News'
Links for the day
The European Patent Office, Europe's Second-Largest Institution, is on Strike Today
Lots more to come
What People Impacted by the Bluewashing Layoffs at IBM Confluent Say (While the Media Says Nothing at All, in Effect Burying the News)
Worse yet, the mainstream media spreads lies about it right now
IBM Has Turned Red Hat and Fedora Into Slop
This is IBM policy
IBM is Being Robbed, Companies and Jobs Are Destroyed
Companies taken over by IBM will be exploited and destroyed to keep a bubble inflated for a little while longer
In Confluent Layoffs, IBM Vapourises a Quarter of Its Workforce (IBM Buys Something That It Destroys Already)
In the past, such things were typically referred to as "media blackout"; now it's just "the norm".
IBM Effect at Confluent: Mass Layoffs and IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines (BCGs) Said to be Violated
For Confluent employees who survived the layoffs there will be "culture chock"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 18, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Links 19/03/2026: LLM Fatigue (It Doesn't Work as Advertised), "Small Web Feeds"
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 15 Out of 200: Background and Particulars of Truth Regarding Techrights and Tux Machines
the basic facts (this has aged well, except the times/ages/numbers)
A Slopfarms Survey for Today (linuxteck.com, linuxsecurity.com, linuxjournal.com)
Not only did Google news link to a slopfarm; it linked to three run by the same team!
Links 18/03/2026: "Venture Capitalist Warns That It’s All About to Come Crashing Down" Due to Slop Bubble, "Birdwatching for Fun and no Profit"
Links for the day
IBM Red Hat is Still Promoting Restricted Boot Which Restricts Users' Control Over Their Computers
Red Hat under IBM is a total catastrophe
Arvind Says... Something Something "Hey Hi" (the State of Today's Media)
Look for news about IBM and most likely it'll boil down to some sound bites from an executive and nothing else
New Post Has Just Explained How IBM Gets Robbed by the People Who Fail IBM
Their plan for IBM is a personal plan
Slop-Spewing GAFAM LLM That Knows Nothing and Understands Nothing, It's a Stochastic Parrot That Cannot Even Figure Out Tux Machines is a Community That Started in Tennessee 22 Years Ago
RMS rightly calls those things "bullshit generators"
Cusdeb Makes New Presentation About Where GNU Hurd (Still a Possible Linux Replacement) Stands in 2026
coming from a generally RMS-friendly account
Gemini Links 18/03/2026: Librarians, Phone Anxiety, Growing 'Small' Net, and Slop Versus Software Engineering
Links for the day
Estimates That IBM to Lay Off Close to 10,000 Workers in 2026 (Not Counting People Pushed Out)
There's still chatter about Confluent mass layoffs
Smug Threat by Garrett to Put My Family and I in Prison Doesn't Prove We Did Anything Wrong, It Only Proves He's Truly Desperate to Stop Further Publications That Embarrass Him
his reputation is poor in the United States
systemd Increasingly Microsoft Project, Controlled by Microsoft and Slopware
Cannot allow choice
What IBM Meant to Red Hat: "Proprietary Bundling, Restricted Source Access"
Anyone or anything that joins IBM likely shortens its lifespan
IBM Thrashing Confluent Upon Arrival, Based on Rumours
We deem it a bigger issue that investigative journalism perished, not that one must rely on hearsay online or mere "rumours"
Slop Is Plagiarism, Not (Vibe) Coding, and It's Not Automated, It Doesn't Save Money
Reject misnomers, explain what's actually happening
UPC is Still Illegal and Unconstitutional (Kangaroo Court for Patents, Manned by Corporate Staff), Federal Court of Justice of Germany Receives Belated Complaint About It
What is happening to Europe???
EPO Demonstration Happening Right Now, Later This Week Things Will Only Escalate Further
The SUEPO The Hague Committee wrote to staff this morning
Sophie Brun, Raphael Hertzog & Debian sexual conflicts of interest
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2026: Commodore's Hedley Davis Dies, Apple Not Good Enough, Cheeto "Floats Treason Charges for Iran War Coverage"
Links for the day
A Step Close to Shutting Down the European Patent Office (EPO)
Not going to work all month long
EPO Staff Demonstration Today
The demonstration will be live-streamed for those thousands of colleagues who don't live in Munich
Gemini Links 18/03/2026: Brazilian SYN Attacks and BGP
Links for the day
LibreLocal Also Coming to Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, and Spain
It helps raise awareness of Software Freedom
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 17, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 17, 2026