Summary: It is becoming increasingly clear, based for example on Koch v EPO, that ILO-AT is where a lot of money will be spent on lawyers and rarely will that result in real justice (but it certainly helps EPO management pretend that staff has safeguards)

"Here's the reason for mailing you," Koch wrote to us the other day after we had inquired, hoping to highlight a new issue that may become more prevalent (well beyond Koch v EPO [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]). We've been trying to learn her side of the story, so we've reached out and spent a lot of time analysing this. It took several weeks.

"We've been trying to learn her side of the story, so we've reached out and spent a lot of time analysing this. It took several weeks."Sometimes it feels like ILO is a 'legal factory' of head-nodding, whose entire existence serves to give an illusion of oversight without it being effective. Appeals to ILO (ILO-AT) are mostly leading to the acceptance (affirmative response/affirming) of existing decisions, which international organisations don't seem to even abide by, certainly not the European Patent Office (EPO). They work around unfavourable decisions. What good is ILO-AT then? Is it the 'theatre of Geneva'? Or a court whose decisions are not legally-binding? Is it just advisory? Mere pretense of the Rule of Law? Like the EPO itself? What if ILO does further damage by just giving EPO decisions the 'veneer' of independent/external/peripheral approval? As it so often does...

"The case of Koch (or Koch v EPO as we like to call it) interests us because based on the documents, which are publicly available, ILO is clearly dysfunctional."This troubles us a lot; if what we hear and what we see is true, then ILO itself has a scandal on its lap, and by extension the UN.

The case of Koch (or Koch v EPO as we like to call it) interests us because based on the documents, which are publicly available, ILO is clearly dysfunctional. It's like its 'client' isn't appellants but management of the EPO. They hide the lawlessness using all sorts of legal maneuvering. It would be good for all EPO staff to become familiar with these tricks. In the next couple of posts we shall look deeper into some of the manipulations. ⬆