Bonum Certa Men Certa

Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Bert Koenders: Rapid Improvements in European Patent Office or Else 'High Level' Action

Bert Koenders
Reference: Wikipedia



Summary: The growing political pressure to subject the EPO to the Rule of Law, as the Administrative Council became so complicit that it is demonstrably incapable of functioning rationally, e.g. so as to repair the broken institution

THE EPO's management is trying to come across as confident with its bogus 'results' (and bogus conclusions inferred from these, as we shall explain again later this week), but it's actually rather sweaty under the necktie. Pyrrhic victories such as these (enormous damage to all EPs ever granted and untold damage to the EPO's reputation) have already led to a decrease in applications, a recruitment crisis, and perhaps even an existential threat to the EPO (as a patent examination office). EPO management is on the run, it is not at all victorious. It's just trying to have one last "hurrah!" using many years' worth of backlog, which merely deepens the crisis (examiners are smart enough to know what this entails). Everyone at the EPO knows about it, probably even the clueless management. Maybe the new recruits, having signed short-term contracts, are still not "in the know"...



"Pyrrhic victories such as these (enormous damage to all EPs ever granted and untold damage to the EPO's reputation) have already led to a decrease in applications, a recruitment crisis, and perhaps even an existential threat to the EPO..."AS SUEPO has already noticed, Dutch media caught up with the latest major development (ignore all the UPC fake news, which we shall tackle later this week and in the weekend).

The "Dutch media report about EPO intervention by Foreign Minister," a reader told us, is finally out. There may be more like it (to come or already published but overlooked) and it follows some coverage here in Britain. We were the first to write about it if not 'scoop' it.

"They finally published a report about it on 7 March," the reader noted, "four days after Techrights broke the news. Well done Techrights!"

We've noticed that as well. The Register covered this too and explicitly gave credit to us.

We have meanwhile 'taken advantage' of fluent Dutch speakers whose English is also strong and produced the following translation, which helps shed further light and contains some new quotes, especially in the last paragraph about FNV.

Tuesday, 7th March 2017

Koenders: rapid improvements in Patent Office or else 'high level' action



THE HAGUE - The European Patent Office (EPO) in Rijswijk must show "visible improvements in labour relations" in the short term. Unless that happens the Minister for Foreign Affairs Bert Koenders intends to discuss the situation "at a high political level" with the other member countries of the European Patent Organisation.

"I will monitor the matter closely having regard to the responsibilities of the host country," wrote Koenders in a letter to the Parliament. Moreover, he intends to keep after the management to "push for normalization of the situation within the EPO".

At the insistence of the House of Representatives, the Minister recently spoke to the Vice-President of the EPO, Willy Minnoye, about the ongoing discontent among staff. He also mentions in his letter to the House that the Supreme Court has upheld the immunity of the EPO. That means the Organisation is not subject to Dutch law. According to Mr Koenders, this does not preclude the Netherlands as a host country from entering into a discussion of the situation "especially now that the conflict has become part of public and political debate".

The internal conflict has persisted for too long

During the discussion the Minister is said to have informed Minnoye that "the internal conflict has persisted for too long and the situation now requires rapid improvement." As far as he was concerned "the social dialogue needs to be resumed in a constructive manner" and a number of measures designed to inspire confidence must be implemented within a very short time.

The Vice-President of the EPO is reported to have said that "efforts were being made in various ways to initiate a positive dialogue with the staff." He also claimed that the Organisation would soon move into calmer waters.

A reign of terror

For a long time now there has been conflict inside the EPO. Recently the staff have held protest rallies and work stoppages on several occasions. Under the leadership of the director Benoît Battistelli the management is said to conduct a reign of terror.

"Battistelli rules with an iron fist and tolerates no participation or opposition on the part of staff. He dismisses people at will, demotes them, unilaterally forces through changes to working conditions thereby demotivating the whole organisation," according to the trade union FNV in a previous statement about the situation.


"We're dealing with quite a beast here and if tamed or brought down (or pacified, so to speak) the EPO can once again return/revert back to a more-or-less tolerable workplace -- one that would serve Europe's interests rather than a cabal of sociopaths."For those who may be wondering what's to come next, we have a lot to write about the UPC (rebuttals to lobbyists), much to write about the demise of patent quality, and our two long series ("The Sickness of the EPO" and the much older ongoing series) are far, far from over. We're trying to tackle and get out of the way the most important/relevant topics first, based on what time permits (I have been at work many days this week) and based on the timing or strategy of EPO taking points. To say that they lie every day is an understatement; in Twitter, for instance, they lie once every few hours. I have never in my entire life come across anything quite so embarrassing or an institution so eager to receive positive publicity that it pays publications for it and hires fracking lobbyists as a PR company (at the expense of over a million Euros per year!). We're dealing with quite a beast here and if tamed or brought down (or pacified, so to speak) the EPO can once again return/revert back to a more-or-less tolerable workplace -- one that would serve Europe's interests rather than a cabal of sociopaths.

Recent Techrights' Posts

"What Comes After Free Software?" Wrongly Insinuates We've Reached the Goal (Prison is Not the Goal)
The oil tycoons use similar tactics against environmentalists, giving them fake "wins"
Making More Work Space
I learned the hard way that less is more in circumstances where more means distraction
MAHA is a Lie, Public Officials Never Valued Citizens' Health (They Still Value Private Businesses, Their Sponsors)
Reject demagogues
New Techrights Turns 2
Today starts the third year of the SSG-based Techrights
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
 
Code of Censorship
Extortion is peace
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Un-cancelled the Best People, Just in Time for the Big 4-0
Mr. Oliva should have been there all along (since 2019)
Most "Modern" Technology Makes You Slower and Dumber
Because proprietary software makes you worse off
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Press Kit for the Weekend After Next Weekend (40th Anniversary)
miles better than social [sic] media [sic] quips, moderated by narcissists and oil tycoons.
Microsoft Had Two Waves of Mass Layoffs This Month (That We Know of) and It'll Get Worse for Microsoft Soon
Will the axe fall again by month's end?
Gemini Links 23/09/2025: Happy Equinox, Photronic Arts, and Perception Cognition
Links for the day
Lessons We've Learned After 17 Years of American Hosting
GAFAM is "all-in" with the "Trump agenda"
Back to Normal Now, We Plan to Do More In-Depth Series (or Multi-part Stories)
Articles (or series thereof) that contain philosophy are important to us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 22, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 22, 2025
Microsoft Media is Panicking Amid Mass Layoffs Every Month, H-1B Fees, and "Seattle’s Tech Scene in Trouble"
In "late stage Microsoft", copyleft becomes proprietary
The Next Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs Being Discussed Already
Red Hat is sort of disappearing the way Tivoli did
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025