One last 'gift' from Battistelli?

Summary: President Benoît Battistelli's coup d'état at the EPO has left the institution looking like a sultanate or monarchy rife with corruption and immune from prosecution

THERE'S no level too low for the EPO to sink to. After many scandals and virtually no intervention from the outside Battistelli must be feeling invincible. He's willing to even destroy the entire office, after about half a century of operation, just to promote UPC in Paris. Battistelli seems to be working to ensure that the next EPO President is also French and no doubt much of the management will remain French regardless. It's quite a comprehensive coup. It's imperialism with kangaroo courts and mafia tactics, not with swords and armour.

"Battistelli seems to be working to ensure that the next EPO President is also French and no doubt much of the management will remain French regardless."The EPO's validation agreement with Tunisia, a former French colony, is a Battistelli project. We mentioned it last month because after Tunisia we expect the same from Angola and the EPO has just published this "news" titled "Brevets européens en Tunisie : L’accord de validation entre l’OEB et la Tunisie entrera en vigueur le 1er décembre" with the obligatory photo op. "Sorry," it says, "this page is currently not available in English." So one needs to understand French to know what Battistelli is up to at the EPO.

"Is the EPO just a French institution now?""EPO," one reader joked to us about it, "a world IP player among his pairs."

Well, even the tweet is not in English. Is the EPO just a French institution now? Well, not far from it. We may soon find out if 3 out of 4 consecutive EPO Presidents are French.

Today we also received the following message:

EUROPEAN INVENTOR AWARD 2018

According to some sources:

THE EUROPEAN INVENTOR AWARD 2018 LOCATION IS TO BE ANNOUNCED ANY MOMENT NOW

Guess which city in France (yes FR again after Paris in 2015) is now awaiting to be confirmed as the likely host of the 2018 edition of the EIA (big waste of applicants' money) :

SAINT-GERMAIN-EN-LAYE

Le hasard fait vraiment bien les choses: this is the city of which Battistelli was during years an elected City Council member (Maire Adjoint à la Culture).

Why are we not surprised?

Wait until we continue our series about Portugal and Angola. The EPO wrote today that "Portugal joins the Federated European Patent Register" and mentioned another former Portugese colony in this tweet. It said: "Register for the "Patent information from BRICS countries: Brazil" webinar. It's free of charge & starts in 2 hrs..." (right about now)

"Anyone who looks at all this evidence will quickly realise that the EPO has been reduced to a laughing stock. It's corrupt."They have also just called for nominations. What for? Battistelli's last lobbying event in his home town.

Anyone who looks at all this evidence will quickly realise that the EPO has been reduced to a laughing stock. It's corrupt. The management is mostly French, many are former colleagues of Battistelli, some are even relatives. Battistelli holds professional EPO meetings in his home town in France while building himself quite an expensive 'wine cellar' at the top floors of the EPO (using secret budget, causing massive losses for Dutch contractors). Professional investigators are denied access to the EPO and bailiffs turned away by Battistelli's goons. ⬆