Fallout from Euro Patent Office meltdown reaches Dutch parliament

Flipside

Of course in Battistelli's letter he neglects to mention any of the numerous allegations made of mismanagement, including that the EPO:

• Leaked a false story about one examiner having Nazi memorabilia in his house.
• Illegally bugged and wiretapped staff as part of internal investigations.
• Refused to accept that German or Dutch laws applied to them, as an international organization.
• Ran several sham disciplinary hearings.
• Threatened to fire or ruin any critics of their actions, or anyone who went public with their concerns.

There was also no mention of the fact that Battistelli has been repeatedly censured, that his reforms efforts were strongly condemned by the EPO's appeals board, that one of the individuals the EPO suspended was cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent investigator, that there have been repeated strikes over his actions, and that his own Boards of Appeal wrote a denunciation of his effort to personally intercede in an independent inquiry.

Instead, the EPO president points to his own team's PR efforts as evidence that the organization is doing well, including the paid-for report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management, as well as the conference set up and run by EPO management to discuss that report.

"The social dialogue at the EPO has never been an easy path," Battistelli concluded. "However, this does not mean that the management should not put all its efforts into trying to continuously improve it. However, this cannot be done at the cost of tolerating unacceptable individual breaches of our regulations."

The Dutch parliament debate is likely to highlight a far less rosy picture of events at the EPO and may contribute to yet another effort – the third in a row – to get the EPO's Administrative Council to act collectively and fire its controversial and wildly unpopular president. ®