LOOKING back at official documents and letters from the Benoît Battistelli days of the EPO, it's not difficult to see that the German government has been largely complicit in the sense that it systematically failed to punish corrupt officials, it failed to ensure privacy is respected, and it did nothing concrete to demand data protection standards are raised (there have been security breaches since then; cover-up ensued). It was exceptionally bad back then and nowadays it's even worse; key data is nowadays being passed in bulk to the US government. Germany has basically been a terrible steward of European data and workers' basic dignity. A lot of publishers haven't shown any interest in EPO scandals in recent years; some of them are being bribed by the Office and others are habitually intimidated. This PR strategy (hiring lawyers and PR operatives in 'journalist' clothing) is costly and it is clearly a misuse of EPO budget.

Shortly we'll start showing some cross-pollination that helps explain these machinations at the German government. ⬆