Bonum Certa Men Certa

Hot Summer: EPO Management on Trial This Week

Supreme Court will keep Battistelli at bay

Chair at beach



Summary: The cases against EPO management (collective, not just Benoît Battistelli) and against Željko Topić (as an individual) are guaranteed to make it a hot sweaty summer at the higher floors of EPO buildings

AFTER the latest big meeting at the end of June the EPO may seem to have fallen off the headlines. It’s definitely busy behind the scenes (trial this week, so preparations are made), but the media is mostly quiet, with few exceptions. We still require translations from German [1, 2] and we have some articles in the making with exclusive information in them.



Remember that EPO management will be on trial this week (for its extraordinary abuses, for which it was found guilty previously). The EPO's Vice-President, or Battistelli's bulldog, is personally (not collectively) in trouble as a verdict is imminent (decision should be made soon) in Croatia. If these people wonder why Brits voted in favour of leaving the EU, well... this is why. It's mischief and criminality.

"If these people wonder why Brits voted in favour of leaving the EU, well... this is why. It's mischief and criminality."The EPO management isn't quite so accustomed to fair trials and it tends to ignore these, not show up, not obey rulings etc. That's just how bad things have become. At the "European Patent Office," said or implied one new comment, "secret trials on bogus charges [are brought] against anyone who disagrees with the President" and here is the timely analogy: "On July 12, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague is expected to deliver its final award on the arbitration case between the Republic of the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China. Mmh ... a country, run by a cabal of people forming a Central Committee, that considers itself above the law and has pledged to ignore any decision a Tribunal in the Hague may take ... does that remind you of anyone else?"

Battistelli's regime is somewhat like China's or North Korea's; state propaganda is the standard, lying to the citizens is routine, and Team Battistelli refuses to obey orders from The Hague. Battistelli goes further than China by also undermining internal 'courts' inside the EPO. As another comment put it: "And the result went against the cabal - who immediately declared the decision and the court wrong and insisted that they would do whatever they had to do to protect their interests while ignoring the decision?"

“...a country, run by a cabal of people forming a Central Committee, that considers itself above the law and has pledged to ignore any decision a Tribunal in the Hague may take...”
      --Anonymous
That's just like Battistelli's minion, Willy Minnoye (EPO), who proudly said that he would ignore the highest court in the Netherlands. These trials serve to expose the vanity or arrogance of horrible regimes. This, in turn, can lead to alienation, boycotts, etc. Battistelli's lobbying event was promoted today by EPO in Twitter, but not the trials. They would rather totally hide all this from stakeholders and pretend that everything is going very well, based on EPO propagandists.

Meanwhile we see that SUEPO, which leads the action against EPO lawlessness, has translated into English this recent article from the Dutch media:

Trade union wants Battistelli’s immunity removed



EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE trade union SUEPO has issued a summons against the patent office. The union is calling on the member states to take action against Battistelli.

Eppo König

29 June 2016

The immunity of President Benoît Battistelli of the European Patent Office must be lifted. This call was made by trade union SUEPO on Tuesday to the 38 member states of the office, through lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld.

The call was prompted by further escalation of the industrial dispute between the union and Frenchman Battistelli. The union, which represents half the 7000 employees, has now brought the patent office to court because of sanctions against trade union officials.

The office grants European patents and has branches in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium. As an international organisation, the patent office says it is not bound by national labour laws and enjoys immunity. The Court of Justice in The Hague did not agree, but Battistelli ignored the ruling. The case has now been brought before the Supreme Court.

The management crisis will be central when the Administrative Council, the highest body with representatives from the 38 member countries, meets in Munich on Wednesday and Thursday. The patent office does not wish to speculate on the agenda of the management board, says a spokesman.

In March, the council instructed Battistelli to normalise the relationship with the council. Instead of this, the secretary of SUEPO, Laurent Prunier, was recently suspended for alleged misconduct. There are ‘disciplinary investigations’ into seven union leaders, around a third of the total, says lawyer Zegveld. The procedures could result in dismissal or reduction of the salary or pension.

The union brought a preliminary injunction at the Court of Justice in The Hague, for an independent ruling on the disciplinary investigations. The patent office allowed the officer delivering the summons to leave the site with five guards. They also would not tell him where the post box was. A number of important member states, such as Germany, France and Switzerland are very critical of Battistelli. He recently increased the irritation by applying personal pressure in dismissal proceedings against an Irish patent judge. Battistelli demanded in a letter that the judge should not be given a public hearing by a board of appeal. The commission stated that its independence was being brought into question and did not accept the dismissal.

The office does not comment on individual cases, according to the spokesperson.


In the coming days or weeks we might know not just the outcome of this trial but also the trial/s against the EPO Vice-President, whose abuses are so unspeakable that one gets sued for the offense (of merely speaking about them).

Recent Techrights' Posts

New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
 
Slopwatch: Plagiarism and "Linux" Articles by Bots
Sites that do this won't survive; many of them rely on slop services (suppliers) that will cease to exist after the bubble bursts
Distinguished Lecture by Richard Stallman This Coming Monday in Rome
After "Free software, Crucial for Freedom in a Digital World"
Links 10/10/2025: Putin Admits Russia Downed Azerbaijan Airlines Jet, More New Heat Records
Links for the day
Noteworthy Claim That IBM is Firing a Lot of Lawyers This Week (RAs in the Legal Department)
A lot of what they do is patent 'trolling' or lawyering up against their own staff (e.g. HR disputes)
Links 10/10/2025: US Judge Bars Attacks by ICE On Journalists and Protesters; “We Took The Freedom of Speech Away” Says the President
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
Google itself is a slop pusher these days
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day
Slopwatch Appreciated by Real Authors of GNU/Linux Articles
We do try to keep on top of those things
Upgraded R.R.R.R.R.R. Today
The Web of 2025 is full of garbage, not limited to slopfarms
Freedom From Proprietary Prisons
Forking always an option
IBM's Watson Died in 1956, Now Watson Dies Again
IBM is becoming just a reseller of GAFAM and other stuff
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Google News
We've also just noticed more slop from UbuntuPIT
Microsoft Says That Constant Mass Layoffs Are Success, the Media Isn't Buying This Microsoft Narrative Anymore
If people in the media feel an obligation to repeat whatever lies Microsoft tells, what point will there be to the media?
Links 08/10/2025: "Mali Puts Free Speech on Trial" And Apple Enforces Dictatorship
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: ‘Death to Spotify’ and Law to Ban Loud Commercials on Streaming (Dis)Services
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Real Innovation and Nina.chat is Dead
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Y2K38 Bug is a Vulnerability, Chat Control in Europe a Threat
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
How and Why Once-Legitimate Sites Turn Into Slopfarms
Many sites will go offline and many social control networks will shut down once they realise or even openly admit they spend money and time gardening a bunch of bots and slop
UbuntuPIT Became a Slopfarm and Gnoppix Tarnishes Its Own Brand With Slop
It fits all the characteristics of mildly-edited (if at all) slop
Slopwatch: Linux Journal and Other Slopfarms
GAFAM needs to go the way of the dodo
Gemini Links 08/10/2025: "Seek Seek Revolution" and Gradient Backgrounds
Links for the day
Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 07, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Stagnation of the Economy and What Free Software Can (or Could) Do For It
If your economic model is based on a pyramid of lies, it won't last very long
Social Control Media is Sinking
it would rightly seem like the era of centralised "social" sites (they're not social, they're about controlling the users) is ending, not overnight but gradually