"...we firmly believe in the core values of tolerance and openness. Such attacks will never destroy these principles, nor the European values of cultural diversity, tolerance and mutual respect." ~Benoît Battistelli today.
"Can't they see that they merely reinforce their stigma as chronic liars?"A lot of people out there refer/allude to the EPO's boss, Battistelli, as a Frenchman, which is technically correct but it's an Italian name and he's from Corsica, where his name is apparently associated with the Mafia. No wonder he runs the Office like the Sicilian Mafia, based on what insiders say. The mainstream media has already compared his regime to "terror", yet he has the nerve to condemn terror every single time it happens somewhere. Projection much? Another PR stunt? FTI Consulting's idea? Now Battistelli is milking Sweden (as usual, he always does this). At around the same time (this afternoon) the EPO retweeted Mikk Putk, a Patent Attorney who apparently fell for the latest publicity stunt and wrote that "EPO offers grants for academic research," alluding to the latest PR/publicity stunt, trying to paint the EPO as a friend of researchers -- the very thing it is not (at least not anymore). "Use [of misuse] of applicants' money" is what one person at IP Kat comments called it today, linking to our rebuttal/response. How much worse can the PR strategy of the EPO get? Can't they see that they merely reinforce their stigma as chronic liars? No other public institution is obsessing so much over terror attacks (to the point where about 20% of 'news' is just that). Battistelli's chronic paranoia and weird fetishes are making the EPO more and more of a laughing stock. ⬆