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● 11.03.15

●● EPO “Careering Towards the Precipice of Disaster”

Posted in Europe, Patents at 8:27 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Pressure from external entities, the latest being the International Labour Organization (ILO), is putting the EPO’s management under incredible pressure

THIS afternoon or in the early evening we are going to write a great deal about the EPO crisis (we have been out of Town for a couple of days, hence little coverage). There is a lot more to be said about the EPO, which is rapidly accelerating towards a steep cliff. In the mean time, however, head over to Merpel’s blog as she has just written about ILO (Techrights wrote about this on Friday), to which SUEPO replied by saying it “had previously submitted its views on the situation in the answer to the ILO-questionnaire.”

=> ↺ EPO crisis | ↺ she has just written about ILO | Techrights wrote about this on Friday | ↺ answer

“Merpel is saddened by the sight of the European Patent Office, once regarded as a jewel in the crown of European and indeed global intellectual property excellence, careering towards the precipice of disaster, its leadership obstinately failing to heed every warning sign and its Administrative Council apparently incapable of exercising decisive control.”      –MerpelTo quote Merpel: “The successful functioning of the Administrative Tribunal (AT) of the Geneva-based International Labour Organization (ILO), like many dispute resolution bodies with finite resources, is inversely proportionate to the extent to which it is used. Thus with only a small trickle of cases at any given time, the AT can at least give them its best attentions and, even though the organisation is not known for its speed, it can be expected to deal with them within the lifetime of its complainants. However, when faced with an unprecedented volume of complaints, it can do nothing.”

Here is the key part which is an expression of opinion (EPO does not like opinions or opinionated people): “Merpel is saddened by the sight of the European Patent Office, once regarded as a jewel in the crown of European and indeed global intellectual property excellence, careering towards the precipice of disaster, its leadership obstinately failing to heed every warning sign and its Administrative Council apparently incapable of exercising decisive control. It would be wonderful to say “this cannot last”. The tragedy is that it can.”

We don’t believe this tragedy can last. They are in a vortex of their own making and the longer it spins, the worse it will get. It has already become quite epic because every escalation in ‘damage control’ leads to new crises, such as the EPO surveillancegate and EPO censorshipgate. There is another “gate” in the making right now. █

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