People are leaving the Office a lot faster than the EPO is able to hire replacements

Summary: A report from Canada about the EPO's oddly-placed booth, whose whole purpose seems to be attracting interest in another continent

THE EPO (see Wiki for background) is burning money or flushing money down the toilet. Insiders worry about it and talk about it. Why aren't officials or even delegates talking about the unprecedented waste of money? When millions of Euros are wasted on just a few hours of lobbying something is just seriously wrong.

Some time ago we learned about an event held at a congress centre. "The exhibition was reserved to previously registered conference participants," someone told us, "with something like a €£600 fee." This is quite typical when it comes to such events, where only relatively affluent people are allowed, or people who work for large companies that foot the bill or are partners with the events (e.g. sponsorship). "There was another "cheaper" option (about €£175) which was no longer available," we got told.

"Why aren't officials or even delegates talking about the unprecedented waste of money?""Day 1 was open to the general public," we learned, and "it might have been interesting to go there. Even though I think electric cars are a terrible idea, it would still have interested me to have a good look at that environment."

Indeed, as it turned out, "exhibitors received a contingent of passes," which means that EPO staff could probably get in.

Shown above is what was available even for those denied entry (too expensive). "The interesting thing," we got told, "is that the EPO had a FULL PAGE ad. There were only three of these in the whole brochure: one from the Québec government, the top sponsor, one for the public power utility, which is really an arm of the Québec government, and the EPO. That's strange, as the EPO isn't even listed as a sponsor. Two actual sponsors (Nissan and Volkswagen) only had half-page ads, and all the few other ones were quarter-page or even smaller. Obviously quite a bit of money was squandered on this. This is an angle [worth exploring], together with, why should a public authority peddle monopolies like kings did centuries ago?"

"Indeed, as it turned out, "exhibitors received a contingent of passes," which means that EPO staff could probably get in."Remember that the EPO is, indeed, a de facto monopoly in Europe. There is no competing office other than NPOs (that are serving a different purpose anyway). "According to the floor map, the EPO booth however was smallish," we were told. "The EPO web site appears to indicate this was foreseen as a recruiting event, but this must be an instance of bad timing, as there are currently no openings for scientists and engineers."

Well, that was then. Right now the EPO is very desperate for applicants/applications as staff is fleeing (more on that to be published soon).

"There was a paper presented by one Gilles Schmitt," we were told, "who appears to be a more junior examiner. One person of the same name is mentioned in two electric-vehicle related patent applications from 2007, so if this is the same person, he couldn't have been there for more than 10 years. He couldn't be a director with that seniority, unless he was very eager."

"The interesting thing is that the EPO had a FULL PAGE ad."
      --AnonymousThe title of his talk: "Patents and progress; intellectual property showing the future of electric vehicles" (a subject which is sometimes being pushed for marketing purposes in Twitter).

That whole charade took place quite some time back and in the mean time we saw this tweet from CIPA being promoted by the EPO (see below). ⬆