Bonum Certa Men Certa

Nepotism at the EPO Has Reached Truly Toxic Levels

One last 'gift' from Battistelli?

French EPO



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.

Recent Techrights' Posts

How Many Web Requests From "Linux"...
If one was to assert that "Linux == Android" or "Android == Linux" (it's not that simple), then "Linux" already accounts for about 30% of Web requests
Microsoft Trots Out Its Propaganda Agent Preston Gralla to Make It Sound Like Microsoft Breaks Up With China (Reality: Microsoft Got Dumped by China)
This discredits any publisher that plays along
 
Analogue So Much Better and Faster
From what we can gather, the tram ticketing system does not use Windows; we never saw it crashing or rebooting (or showing some Windows logo) in decades, so we assume it runs some kind of Linux
Linux Today Dumped All Social Control Media Last December
Linux Today seems to have concluded that all Social Control Media is just a waste of time
Don't Say X.com is OK Because People Can Access It by Alternative Means
Can Mozilla please clarify who inside Mozilla greenlit a return to X.com?
The Reach of techrights.org Is Increasing
We are on the side of women victims
SLAPP Censorship - Part 162 Out of 200: An Outline of Events
An outline of events
Pushed to Live
We still have some other work - stuff related to the editing of pages - which is work in progress and has been subjected to testing for many months
GNU/Linux Measured at 10% in Germany, Based on Cloudflare
It's peaking late at night
Richard Stallman's GNU Project Began 42 Years Ago With GNU Emacs and More
GNU Project announced almost 43 years ago (next month it's the anniversary)
Fake Articles "Sponsored by HPE" Published in The Register MS
Selling proprietary products as 'alternatives' to other proprietary products
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 25, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 25, 2026
Gemini Links 26/08/2026: Journal Plans and Extending Finger Protocol
Links for the day
An Explainer About Injunctions Done Wrong - Part I - Saving Money Where Money Cannot be Saved
Of course Garrett not being able to afford his own case is a key factor here
Links 25/08/2026: "U.S. Marines Cancel Drill With South Korea", "UK Prime Minister Burnham Arrives in Ukraine"
Links for the day
Not for the First Time This Week, Site Called "It's FOSS" is Promoting Software That is NOT FOSS (And It Knows It)
Is this an editorial choice? Advertising? What is it?
Gemini Links 25/08/2026: Geometry and FidoNet History, "Goodbye I2P and Yggdrasil, Welcome Telnet!"
Links for the day
Links 25/08/2026: Microsoft Salaries Leaked Again, "Oasis Photograph Sparks Copyright Lawsuit"
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Did Not Start in 1991 and America Wasn't Discovered by Europeans
it'll be 43 next month
SLAPP Censorship - Part 161 Out of 200: Low Standards in Defamation Cases Just Muddy the Waters and Distract From Legitimate Cases
The judge at the trial said that Garrett's case was a waste of the court's money
Rolling Out Some Changes Soon
To the regular reader no change will be seen
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 24, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, August 24, 2026
Gemini Links 25/08/2026: Separated by Plexiglass, Low-Tech Information Networks, Jörg Rippel Comes to Geminispace
Links for the day
The Tragedy of Software Developers Making Up Narratives and Making Excuses for Plagiarism (of Their Own Work, Too)
one lingering issue is that many who vote in Debian GRs receive money from slop companies
Evri Makes Us Optimistic About the Collapse of the Slop Pyramid Scheme (Bubble)
Do not be seduced by false promises of "automation" or "intelligence" where only automation may exist but no intelligence at all
Congrats to Linux.org for Adopting or Getting Back to IRC
This is the way the Net ought to work and was originally designed to work [...] IRC as a protocol turns 38 this month
Links 24/08/2026: "Journalism Can Help Expose Bad Science And Trigger Real-World Change"; Further Suppression and Censorship in China/HK
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/08/2026: Soul Mentality, Words to Live by, Mozz.us Gemlog Resumes, Smol Conversations
Links for the day
Today The Register MS Published Greenwashing Spam for the Slop Pyramid Scheme, It Mentions "AI" 29 Times
More people need to talk about the role of the media in this pyramid scheme
Slop Plagiarism and Chatbots Are Killing Evri (They Infuriate and Insult Clients)
Slop destroys companies and leads to misery (miserable clients, time-wasting)
Links 24/08/2026: Re-defining the IndieWeb and "Data Center Backlash Bursts Into the Midterms"
Links for the day
The Issue With Omarchy is the Slop, the Politics Are a Side Issue
Those corporations do not oppose slop, they participate in it
In South Korea, Steady Increases for GNU/Linux
authorities said they would migrate to GNU/Linux or consider moving in that direction
SLAPP Censorship - Part 160 Out of 200: In Astounding Repetition of Last Year, Brett Wilson LLP Deliberately Ignores Holidays of People It is Attacking and Crushes Principles of Access to Justice
Disconnected from the law
Links 24/08/2026: Vision and Skill, Doing Good, Chiperia Project
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 23, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, August 23, 2026