EPO demo to take place in January

Staff at the European Patent Office (EPO) will hold another demonstration this month, to protest against the office’s governance and an alleged lack of transparency for users of its services.

Workers at the EPO’s Munich headquarters, in Germany, will meet at 12pm CET on Wednesday, January 21.

They will meet at Kurt Haertel passage, near the EPO building, and will march to the city’s Danish embassy.

According to the EPO’s staff union (SUEPO), the demonstration is taking place to “reproach” the EPO’s governing body, the Administrative Council (AC). The chair of the AC is Danish national Jesper Kongstad.

According to SUEPO, the AC has failed to exercise due oversight of the EPO’s president, Benoît Battistelli, has not fulfilled its duty of care towards staff, and has not been transparent enough with the office’s users and the general public.

Last year the AC came under pressure before it backed a decision by Battistelli to impose a ‘house ban’ on a member of the office’s Enlarged Board of Appeal following allegations of a staff member’s misconduct.

The AC suspended the worker in December despite receiving two separate letters from Enlarged Board members, including English judge Lord Justice Floyd. The letters asked the AC to recognise that Battistelli does not have the authority to ban a board member.

The Enlarged Board is supposed to be independent from the EPO in its decision-making and is bound only by the European Patent Convention.

Last week WIPR reported that discussions concerning the Enlarged Board dispute had spread to the UK parliament. In a written question to the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), member of parliament for Cambridge Julian Huppert asked what steps were being taken to protect the independence of the board.

In response to Huppert, Ed Vaizey, a Conservative minister who works in BIS, said on Monday (January 5) that officials in the UK Intellectual Property Office were “closely and actively involved” in discussions relating to all of the EPO’s 28 appeal boards, one of which is the Enlarged Board.

Last year EPO staff took part in a five week “incremental” strike, starting on November 20 with a one-day walkout. For the four weeks thereafter the days of the week spent striking increased by one, culminating in a full week’s strike in the week beginning December 15.

The EPO’s press department did not respond immediately to a request for comment.