4 November 2014Patents

EPO suspends former committee member

A patent examiner and former member of an internal committee looking at disputes affecting staff at the European Patent Office (EPO) has been suspended and threatened with dismissal, WIPR has learned.

The worker, who WIPR has been asked not to name, was until last month a member of the internal appeals committee (IAC) at the office’s Munich branch who had been nominated by the office’s central staff committee (CSC).

It is not known what the exact reason for the suspension is but, according to the office’s staff union, it was “linked to former activities” in the IAC.

The worker was allegedly escorted from the premises by security staff yesterday (November 3).

The IAC is a body that oversees disputes about decisions that affect staff members. But in recent months management at the EPO and staff have clashed over how it should be run.

In a letter apparently sent to staff last month from the office’s vice president that has been seen by WIPR, a number of problems were outlined.

These include the number of appeals filed without demonstrating enough evidence and that some appeals disregarded “clear decisions of principle”.

The CSC claimed it was asked to appoint new members to the IAC earlier this year. But the CSC challenged the legality of the request, made by the office’s vice presidents, and said the IAC’s current members had been appointed for a calendar year and should not be replaced mid-term.

The request formed part of the EPO’s self-titled “social democracy” plan, which made changes to the make-up of staff committees so that they are primarily made up of directly elected members.

According to the union, it was these changes that “prematurely ended” the staff member’s time on the IAC.

“As a reward for hard work and his commitment to justice and a fair appeals system, Mr Battistelli [EPO president Benoît Battistelli] has now suspended [the worker] in what looks like an act of revenge,” the staff union claimed in a letter seen by WIPR.

The EPO did not comment.

It is the second departure in recent weeks at the EPO following the departure of communications chief Oswald Schröder in mysterious circumstances last month.

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10 November 2014   A “peaceful” meeting arranged for staff to show support for a suspended internal committee member at the European Patent Office has been blocked, it has been claimed.