Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Protest Tomorrow, Heads of Delegations Informed Regarding the Reasons

Take a Break from Dictatorship - Go to the Demo
Take a Break from Dictatorship - Go to the Demo



Summary: EPO workers are attempting to explain to Heads of Delegations, who have so far (with few exceptions) been complicit and protective of Battistelli, why they must take immediate action

"The next demo of EPO staff is in Munich on Wednesday," told us a reader about tomorrow, "12.30h in front of the Isar building." The above image was produced to promote this demonstration, which we mentioned here several days ago.



"Open letter [got sent] to the Delegations of the EPO's Administrative Council," we were separately told. It cites Techrights in a few places. “Time to put an end to the deterioration of the European Patent system” is the title and we reproduce it below:

Open letter - by email to the Heads of Delegation

13 March 2016

Copies to: Competent Ministries of the Member States

EPO-FLIER Team epoflier@runbox.com

Time to put an end to the deterioration of the European Patent system

Dear Heads and Members of the Delegations to the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation, dear Chairman,

Following debates in the Netherlands1, the French2 and the Bavarian3 parliaments, the social conflict at the EPO has become the subject of discussions at government level. French2,4 and Dutch5 ministers have publicly criticised Mr Battistelli for his intimidating and destructive management style. The Dutch Foreign Minister said in a recent letter: "If no visible improvements take place in the short term in the relations within the EPO, I see no other option but to discuss the situation at a high political level with the member states of the European Patent Organisation."

The situation has not improved. On the contrary, the working atmosphere has become even more toxic. Proposed new house and security rules will, if they enter into force, entitle security staff to seize and search bags, phones and laptops of employees at any time6,7. They will also prohibit the dissemination of posters and flyers. Assemblies of more than 25 persons will require management permission. Additionally, a further reform aimed at weakening the staff representation even more has been prepared8,9.

Mr Battistelli can manage the Office without respecting staff's fundamental rights and international labour law standards while he enjoys the privileges and immunities accorded to diplomatic agents under the Vienna Convention. But these privileges and immunities are inseparable from the right of the host state to declare any diplomatic staff member persona non grata or not acceptable "at any time and without having to explain its decision"10. From this, it flows that the host states have a special responsibility for the employees of guest organisations. At this point, it is worth noting that the delegations of the EPO's major host states, Germany and The Netherlands, voted in favour of the strike rules (which violate Article 11 of the ECHR) and the Social Democracy reform. While it can be assumed that they were originally misguided by the president’s presentation (with the help of the German vice-president DG511) of these reforms, in the meantime, these host states must have realised that the reforms have in fact undermined labour rights, and contributed to the current crisis12 in the European Patent Organisation.

The social reforms and management by intimidation, in combination with unrealistic and arbitrary production targets, have had the effect of introducing de facto changes to the European Patent Convention (EPC) through the back door13. The European Patent Organisation has thus broken its legal contract not only with staff but also with its stakeholders (companies and consumers), including the applicants, who finance the patent system.

According to the president, these reforms were necessary to serve the EPO’s “customers” better. However, a recent independent survey14 conducted by the well-respected German legal magazine JUVE revealed that this is far from the case: firstly, less than half of the survey’s participants were happy with the current quality of the European patent examination process. Only one in 25 considers the president's efficiency strategy useful. The survey also showed an alarming level of mistrust in Mr Battistelli (zero percent confidence rating), with the majority of respondents calling for his resignation.

Last but not least, the survey shows that a quality erosion has taken place. Low quality patents create legal uncertainty for patent applicants and their competitors. Legal uncertainty hinders investments and leads to increased litigation, which is a drag on the economy15. Seen in this light, the president’s announcement on 7 March 2017 of a 40% increase in patent grants in 2016 is alarming. It is difficult to believe that such a surge in productivity could be achievable without a drop in quality. Asserted low quality patents are equivalent to a tax on innovation since the costs are passed on to the consumers16.

The findings of the JUVE survey are in contrast with the EPO's own quality statistics. Due to a built-in conflict of interest, the ISO-9001-certified quality measuring system for the procedure at the EPO indicates an excellent quality, no matter what the actual quality of the product is17. Furthermore, the EPO's quality audit department (DQA) reports direct to the president. There, Mr Battistelli measures his own quality. The Administrative Council should consider transferring DQA activities to an independent institution in order to establish a more reliable quality measuring system. This could be a first step in the direction to regain the trust of the users of the patent system.

Accept your responsibility for safeguarding a patent system that delivers the quality required by the European public and do no longer support HR policies that are unfit for an intergovernmental organisation in the 21st century.

Make sure to select the right new person for the job.

With our best regards,

The EPO-FLIER team

a group of concerned staff of the EPO who wish to remain anonymous due to the prevailing harsh social climate and absence of the rule of law at the European Patent Office

______ 1 https://www.suepo.org/documents/43960/56042.pdf 2 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/03/epo_president_disgrace_to_france/ 3 https://www.suepo.org/documents/43906/55980.pdf 4http://www.richardyung.fr/francais-de-l-etranger/questions-au-gouvernement-francais-etranger-cote-circonscription/4219-question-orale-sur-la-degradation-du-climat-social-au-sein-de-loeb-reponse-du-gouvernement.html 5 https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/07/come_in_battistelli_your_time_is_up/ 6 https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/03/euro_patent_office_interpol_phones_and_laptops/ 7 Circulars GCC/DOC 4/2017 (physical security), GCC/DOC 6/2017 (information security) and GCC/DOC 5/2017 (house rules) 8 https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/31/battistelli_tries_again_to_break_epo_union/ 9 http://techrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/sc17027cl.pdf 10 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 18 April 1961 11 CA/PV 136 Minutes of the 136 th Administrative Council meeting (June 2013), page 21/48 12 B28/2/16 (02.02.2016): “The Board qualified the situation as a crisis – a view challenged by the President.” 13 Open Letters of 22 June 2016 and 11 October 2016; http://epostaff4rights.org/openletters.html 14 https://suepo.org/public/ex17003cp.pdf (German); https://suepo.org/public/ex17003cpe.pdf (English) 15 http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/295542-fixing-why-uspto-issues-low-quality-patents-should-be 16 http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC103321/jrc103321 online version.pdf 17 http://techrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/sc16170cp.pdf



As we explained here before, even ILO's staff union (the ILO Staff Union as it's called) supports the staff of the EPO, seeing what kind of abuse they're subjected to. How much longer can all these injustices go on for? It's damaging Europe's reputation in the world.

Recent Techrights' Posts

99.99% Uptime in First Half of 2025
Since January there was only one noticeable outage
When People Call a Best/Close Friend of Bill Gates a "Serial Rapist"
Good thing that the Linux Foundation keeps the "Linux" trademark ("Linux Mark") clean
Microsoft Bankruptcy in Russia, Shutdown in Pakistan, What Next?
It seems possible that in 2025 alone Microsoft will have laid off over 50,000 workers
What Matters More Than "Market Share"
The goal is freedom, not "market share"
Credit Suisse collapse obfuscated Parreaux, Thiébaud & Partners scandal
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
UK Media Under Threat: Cannot Report on Data Breach, Cannot Report on Microsoft Staff Strangling Women
The story of super injunction (in the British media this week, years late)
 
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity.com Slopfarm and Slopfarms Propped Up by Google News
"As LLM slop is foisted onto the WWW in place of knowledge and real content, it now gets ingested and processed by other LLMs, creating a sort of ouroboros of crap."
Links 18/07/2025: Weather Events and Health Hazards
Links for the day
Microsoft's All-Time Low in Finland
Microsoft is in a freefall
Security: Shane Wegner & Debian statement of incompetence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 17, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 17, 2025
Gemini Links 17/07/2025: "Goodreads for Gemini" and Defence of "The Small Web"
Links for the day
Links 17/07/2025: Anger and Morale Issues at Microsoft, Wars and Conflicts Get Digital
Links for the day
CALEA / CALEA2 is the Real Problem, Not Chinese Operatives Exploiting CALEA / CALEA2 (as Any Other Nation Can)
CALEA / CALEA2 is more of a front door than a back door
Nils Torvalds and Anna "Mikke" Torvalds (née Törnqvis) Hopefully Use GNU/Linux by Now
"Torvalds Family Uses Windows, Not Linus’ Linux"
Attack of the Slopfarms
FUD-amplifying bots with slop images, slop text (LLM slop)
Not My Problem, I Don't Care
Context/inspiration: Martin Niemöller
Honest Journalism About the European Patent Office Ceased to Exist After SLAPPs and Bribes to the Media
The EPO is basically a Mafia
Life Became Simpler When I Stopped Driving and I Don't Miss Driving When I See "Modern" Cars
Gee, wonder why car sales have plummeted...
Why I Believe Brett Wilson LLP and Its Microsoft Clients Are All Toast
So far our legal strategy has worked perfectly
EPO Jobs Are Very Toxic and Bad for One's Health
Health first, not monopolies
Response to Ryo Suwito Regarding the Four Freedoms
the point of life isn't to make more money
Microsoft's Morale Circling Down the Drain
Or gutter, toilet etc.
Tech Used to be Fun. To Many of Us It's Still Fun.
You can just watch it from afar and make fun of it all
Links 17/07/2025: "Blog Identity Crisis" and Openwashing by Nvidia
Links for the day
Greffiers and the US Attorney of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft
The lawsuit can help expose extensive corruption in the American court system as well
The People Who Promoted systemd in Debian Also Promote Wayland
This is not politics
Victims of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft, Alex Balabhadra Graveley, Wanted to Sue Him But Lacked the Funds (He Attacked Their Finances)
Having spoken to victims of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft
Links 17/07/2025: Science, Hardware, and Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/07/2025: Staying in the "Small Web" and Back on ICQ
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 16, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Under the Guise of "MIT Technology Review Insights" the Site MIT Technology Review Posts Corporate Spam as 'Articles'
Some of the articles aren't even articles but 'hit pieces' against Free software and some are paid advertisements
Brett Wilson LLP Has Track Record in Scam Coin Cases (e.g. Craig Wright and More), Now It Works for 'Crypto' Scam Purveyors
But wait, it gets worse
Exclusive: corruption in Tribunals, Greffiers, from protection rackets to cat whisperers
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Will Brett Wilson LLP Handle Its Own Winding Up Petition or be Struck Off for Overt Abuse of Process?
Today we sue not only the first Microsofter
Links 16/07/2025: Chip Bans and Microsoft’s “Digital Escort” Program
Links for the day
Ubuntu Becomes Microsoft GitHub, Based on Decision Made by British Army Officer
You're hopeless, Canonical
Revolving Doors: One Day You're a Judge, the Next Day You're an Attorney Paying Public Officials and Working for Violent and Dangerous Microsoft Employees
how the US justice system works
Sharing Code and Recipes
It helps explain the triviality of software freedom
Slopwatch: Noise, Plagiarism and Even Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation
What are we meant to do to prevent a false association or misleading connotations? Game the LLMs? No. Boycott slopfarms.
How Many Women Has Microsoft's Alex Balabhadra Graveley Already Strangled and Where Does That End?
If you too are a victim of this man and wish to share information, contact us
Gemini Links 16/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and Simple Web Browsing with TLS
Links for the day
Links 16/07/2025: Fascist Slop Takes "Intelligence" Clothing, New Criminal Case Against MElon
Links for the day
"We Might Save Somebody's Life"
I follow the example of my father
Why I am Suing the Serial Strangler From Microsoft, Alex Balabhadra Graveley, in the UK High Court This Week
Out of respect to the process and to the Court, I shall not share any pertinent details about the case
Links 16/07/2025: China’s Economy Grows Steadily, France Takes Action Regarding Harm to Children by GAFAM and Fentanylware (TikTok)
Links for the day
It is Not About Politics
Beware the people who try to make this about politics
Good Journalism Saves Lives
a shocking number of women die or get seriously hurt every day due to violence from a partner
Recognition of Women's Contributions to Free Software
Being passive is not an option when bad things are happening
Slopfarms Are Going to Perish Because Public Opinion is Changing
Many slopfarms will simply go offline
19 Years of Standing Up for Justice, Equality, and Truth
This week we shall take it up a notch
Gemini Links 16/07/2025: Tmux and OCC25 Working TLS
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 15, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 15, 2025