Summary: Board 28 (B28), which is rumoured to be in the process of ejecting the EPO's President (Battistelli), has a rather revealing set of conclusions

THE EPO is about to go on strike (more on that later tonight). When Battistelli said his relationships were excellent he was either delusional or lying through his teeth. Based on documents leaked to Techrights today, there is no major rewording of the Board's stance on Battistelli. We hereby present the agenda of the B28 meeting (after conclusions were drawn up), dated 9^th of March, 2016 (that's today). The following is the agenda and minutes of the rather secretive B28 meeting (15^th of February).

B28/4/16 Orig.: en Munich, 09.03.2016

SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS

of the

71st meeting of

BOARD OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL

Munich, 17 February 2016

SUBMITTED BY: Council Secretariat

ADDRESSEES: Administrative Council (for information)

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This document has been issued in electronic form only.

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1. The Board of the Administrative Council ("the Board") held its 71st meeting in Munich on 17 February 2016, with Mr Kongstad in the chair. Ms Erlingsdóttir, Mr Asan and Mr Kratochvíl had informed the Chairman that they were not able to attend.

2. The Board adopted the provisional agenda set out in B28/3/16 e.

3. The Board presented the President with a paper, drawn up by the members shortly before the present meeting, which listed the Board's very precise expectations from the Office management regarding the items on today's agenda - in particular on the social and disciplinary issues.

4. The President considered that there was no major issue with four of the five topics which were addressed in this draft but asked for clarification regarding the legal basis for the direct instructions given to the President for individual procedures under his competence. He drew attention to the potentially huge risks in terms of governance.

5. The Board members considered the document to be self-explanatory. They stressed that it should not have come as a surprise, taking into account the numerous signals given by the Administrative Council over a significant period of time. The document is simply meant to achieve clarity. It is deemed necessary as it appears that there are no other means of conveying the Council's recurring concerns expressed over the past months. Beyond the formal (undisputed) issue of Article 10 EPC, the Board has to deplore an obvious lack of willingness from the part of the President to embark on an overdue open discussion with the Council on contentious issues — foremost the social dialogue.

6. The President disagreed and reminded his letter sent to the AC delegations on 15 February explaining the possible ways forward but has to maintain his position for legal reasons concerning the instructions related to the disciplinary cases.

7. The meeting was adjourned before the other issues on the agenda could be examined.

Next week will be historic for the EPO, so I took several days off work. We have a lot of stuff in our backlog, so stay tuned. ⬆