Bonum Certa Men Certa

[Meme] Abolishing Rule of Law

EPO strong and stable: 2012       2017         2022

Disgusted Examiner: The ILOAT did indeed ‘consider’ the legality of the registration fee the EPO charges its employees when they file an internal appeal. In Judgment 4422, consideration 18, in fine, it (laconically) stated: “Moreover, there is no legal basis on which to hold that the registration fee which an internal appellant is required to pay upon filing an internal appeal is unlawful or provides a ground to vitiate the final decision.” Of course, the judgment does not recount which grounds the complainants invoked in support of their objection against the registration fee, nor was the Tribunal bothered about the obvious implications of the (level of the) fee on (equal) access to justice, or the fact that the opinion of the Internal Appeals Committee, a consultative body, primarily serves to enlighten the President (in most cases) on which final decision to take on an internal appeal; an opinion for which the appealing EPO employees are being made to pay for, but which they receive – icing on the cake – only AFTER the President has seen it and taken his decision thereon (Article 14(1) Impl. Reg. Art. 106-113 EPO Service Regulations, giving hence the President all liberty to send the opinion back to the Internal Appeals Committee for ‘reconsideration’ if needed…). Neither did the Tribunal bother to put into perspective its own case law, which emphasised that an “Organisation has an obligation to maintain a properly functioning appeal system” (Judgment 4384, consideration 7; as well as Judgment 3027, consideration 6 and Judgment 1968, consideration 5) as part of its duty of care towards its employees, with the obvious implication that it is for the Organisation to ensure the maintenance, that is, the financing of the registration of internal appeals, such registration quite certainly forming part of the proper functioning of an appeal system.

Summary: The Rule of Law is nowadays entirely ignored by an institution which claims to protect (patent) law

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