Bonum Certa Men Certa

German Television to Cover the EPO Scandals at 9 PM (CET) Tonight -- Half an Hour From Now (Updated)

German Media Redux: The last thing the top-level management wants is transparency inside the European Patent Office, especially after relative calm in German media [1, 2]

BR on EPO



Summary: There is finally quite a lot of German media coverage (radio, television, newspapers) about the truth inside the European Patent Office

TECHRIGHTS still has some work in progress when it comes to German media (more on that in the future). There's also hope that someone will translate "Verwaltungsrat gegen Amtspräsident" for us. It's getting a little out of date, but it turns out that it reached far and wide. "A new article by Thomas Magenheim-Hörmann was published on 29 February," one reader told us yesterday. "The article appeared in the Münchner Merkur and various regional daily newspapers such as the Oberbayrisches Volksblatt."



"V channels and newspapers may soon cover the EPO affairs a lot more than before, based on what we know and have heard."German translations aren't the main priority, however, nor is the pressure for German media to actually cover the developments at the EPO. TV channels and newspapers may soon cover the EPO affairs a lot more than before, based on what we know and have heard. Soon we will also have some videos to share.

Later tonight there will be a program on German television and now comes this preparatory article.

A lot of people are writing to us about it today (and even yesterday). "BR TV "Kontrovers"at 2100 tonight, German local time," one person reminded us. Some people already sent some explanations and translations.

"Some people already sent some explanations and translations."Regarding "Bavarian TV report tonight," one reader told us, "in case you hadn't already been made aware, there's a documentary about the EPO on mainstream TV tonight (Bayerisches Fernsehen - it doesn't get more mainstream than that). The programme will air tonight at 9pm local time."

"Here's the teaser. And here's a translation of the teaser," the reader added with the following preceding remark (we used a screenshot for fair use):

(not sure of the copyright on the photo. the credit is given as Photo: picture-alliance/dpa/Andreas Gebert on the BR website.)

When a dream job becomes a nightmare



A job at the European Patent Office is supposed to be highly lucrative; the pay is generous, and with minimal deductions. And yet, for some employees, the glass palace on the banks of the Isar is a golden cage. Kontrovers [documentary programme] takes a look behind the facade.

EPA in München | Bild: picture-alliance/dpa/Andreas Gebert

The European Patent Office exists to protect the rights of inventors. But many people are critical of its lack of protection for the rights of its own employees. Those responsible at the European Patent Office do not feel bound by fundamental principles of German employment law, such as the special status of employee representatives, pointing instead to its status a supranational organisation, above the German state. Is this really legitimate?


"For information," added another reader, "German media reports about the EPO" are on their way, including the above from Bayrischer Rundfunk (BR). "This evening," added this reader, "(2 March 2016 at 21:00 Central European Time) the Bavarian broadcaster Bayrischer Rundfunk will report in detail on the situation at the EPO in the current affairs program "BR Kontrovers"."

"The program will hopefully be viewable online at the following link after transmission."

"Some people already sent some explanations and translations."TV programs in Dutch sure shifted/changed public opinion (we see this online). If Germany, where the population in considerably larger (bigger by more than an order of magnitude), the same thing can happen, there will be no turning back for Team Battistelli. Germany has a very strong position in EU political circles.

"A report was also broadcast today on Bavarian Radio," our reader added, confirming what we later found out from Florian Müller (already mentioned this morning). "The text at the following link corresponds to the content of the audio broadcast" (we should note that this link is currently broken, so if anyone can find a working link, please let us know).

"A short 3 minute video clip from Bayrischer Rundfunk can be seen here," added this reader (no point ripping it for local hosting if the full program will soon be made available even on television). "The video can be downloaded from this link," our reader added, just in case someone wishes to keep a local copy for future reference. We will try to make sense of it all after the broadcasting. We'll appreciate readers' help with this.

Update (21:51, same day): The TV program about the EPO (from less than two hours ago) is now online at this page. The EPO stuff starts at 11:56 (nearly 12 minutes from the start).

Recent Techrights' Posts

SLAPP Censorship - Part 49 Out of 200: Two Americans, One Case, Recycled for Low Budget at Brett Wilson LLP and 5RB Barristers
Change one character, bill the client tens or hundreds of thousands of US dollars
Behind the Scenes With Richard Stallman
If you support his ideas, even if you dislike him as a person, then you'll welcome his ability to speak about those ideas
 
Speculations That IBM's CEO is on His Way Out
IBM has mass layoffs, but the media is not covering this [...] IBM is a company in the loo, a firm in a state of rapid disintegration
Slopwatch Was Deprecated, It's Not Coming Back
LLMs that produce many words very fast (and waste a lot of energy in the process) cannot compete with authentic news sites
WELCOME to The Cyber|Show @ Geminispace!
Andy set things up this past week
Links 18/04/2026: Microsoft's PR Department (Waggener Edstrom) and CEO's Wife Buys NPR (BillPR, Now BallmerPR) as Independent/Public Service Media Dims Down
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/04/2026: Chronic Pain and CodingFont Game
Links for the day
Links 17/04/2026: "I Hate the Internet" and Fake Wallet in Apple App Store
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 17, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, April 17, 2026
European Patent Office (EPO) Strikes and Other Industrial Actions Are Working: Patent Application Grants Have Collapsed
Even before the strikes happened any day of the week
Pension Contribution Increases as Another Attack on Compensation for EPO Staff (Mostly Patent Examiners)
Pension contribution increases!
Almost 1,000 IBM Layoffs Not Newsworthy (Nobody Covers It), Unlike When Snap Does It and Mentions a Celebrated - or Reviled - Buzzword
not a word regarding IBM layoffs
Gemini Links 17/04/2026: "Many Problems and Inequities in the Legal System", "No Place to Hide"
Links for the day
Links 17/04/2026: SRA Breaks Its Own Rules as Solicitor Attempts Suicide, IPv6 Barely Hits 50% After 20+ Years
Links for the day
ActBlue former IT boss disappearance: Decklin Foster & Debian, Harvard suicide lab, Chris Gleason is wife, whistleblower or both?
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/04/2026: Getting competent in NixOS and Alhena 5.5.6 Released
Links for the day
Links 17/04/2026: "We Cannot Lose Sight of Ukraine" and "When Leaders Should Resign"
Links for the day
GizChina Appears to Have Become a Slopfarm, I.e. Fake News Site With Fake Text
Don't waste a moment reading LLM slop, as at the very least it rewards plagiarism [...] Deemed to be slop also by two human beings, not just two scanners
Massive, Cross-Site Strike at the EPO Today
There's coordination across sites for maximal pressure
Dr. Andy Farnell Says "AI" is "Only a Marketing Term" for Things That Exist for "Entertainment Purposes Only"
distortion or misuse of the term (now buzzword/s) "AI"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 16, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, April 16, 2026
Strikes at the EPO Carry on, Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) Increases Pressure Ahead of Technical and Operational Support Committee (TOSC) Meeting Next Week
the local section The Hague (or SUEPO TH) wants to rally many staff members
Gemini Links 16/04/2026: LLM Nuisance, Identity Systems (Surveillance), and Why Windows is Failing
Links for the day
'Going Offline' is Not Primitivism
Computers are good at automation, but people are not robots
The Register MS Has Published Article With "AI" 18 Times in it, "Cloud" 9 Times. It Got Paid to Do This.
What happened to journalism?
In Europe, More People Turn to Russia for Answers, Not Microsoft
The future of computing doesn't look pretty
SLAPP Censorship - Part 48 Out of 200: Brett Wilson LLP and 5RB Copy-Pasting Bogus Claims for Violent Americans (Microsoft) Who Tell Women to Kill Themselves
Microsoft's Graveley telling his partner to kill herself is probably a crime
The EFF Is Hardly Doing Anything Anymore
Our series about the EFF has been brewing for over 2 years already
Microsoft Uses Slop to Bribe (at No Cost) Nations That Otherwise Would Move to GNU/Linux and IBM is Forcing Red Hat Staff to Use Slop
Life it too short to waste "consuming" slop
Links 16/04/2026: Roblox Launching ‘Roblox Kids’ Accounts and "Deepfake Nudes Crisis in Schools"
Links for the day
Red Hat Staff: IBM Red Hat Laid Off About 400 Engineers, the Media Did Not Cover This
The media is not doing its job or doing a really shoddy job
Gemini Links 16/04/2026: Nocturnal Pulse, Unpersoned Outlaws, and Monaspace Lagrange Fontpacks
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Lecture in GDC Auditorium in Austin, Texas
corporate power could not 'cancel' the man
It's Not About the Head, It's About the Masters (and Funding)
Regardless of who the OSI claims to be its leader, its masters are Microsoft, just follow the money
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 15, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 15, 2026