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11 December 2017Patents

UN agency reinstates suspended EPO judge

The International Labour Organization’s Administrative Tribunal (ILOAT) handed down five decisions concerning the European Patent Office (EPO) last week, in an “extraordinary session”.

On Wednesday, December 6, the UN agency set aside decisions made by the EPO in three of the cases, while dismissing the complainant’s applications for further interpretation in the other two.

In two of these judgments, 3958 and 3960, the tribunal ordered the “immediate reinstatement” of a suspended EPO Board of Appeals judge to his former post.

The complainant, who is referred to in the decisions as “P.C”, is believed to be Patrick Corcoran.

He had alleged that the Administrative Council had imposed several measures on him in relation to an alleged misconduct. These included suspension, a “house ban”, a blocking of his EPO user ID, and a request for him to relinquish all EPO property.

The ILOAT awarded the suspended EPO member material damages in an amount equal to the deductions from his remuneration, and moral damages.

It also ordered the EPO to immediately allow the complainant access to the EPO premises and resources, to return any EPO property it requested him to hand over and to unblock his user ID.

As it might reasonably be thought that the EPO’s president Benoît Battistelli was “directly, specifically and individually offended by the misconduct for which the complainant was charged”, he could not take part in any individual proceedings regarding the complainant, said the 3960 judgment.

It added: “The president’s participation in these proceedings has given rise to the unlawfulness of the individual decisions impugned with the tribunal.”

In a separate case, judgment 3972 set aside an EPO decision to dismiss an employee for his misconduct in the form of being absent from work without permission, failure to undertake a medical examination, and failure to register sick leave in time, among others.

A spokesperson for the EPO said that the office respects rulings of the tribunal.

The spokesperson added that the matters addressed in the ILOAT judgments 3958 and 3960 fall under the authority of the Administrative Council. The council will include the matters in a meeting this week.

The tribunal’s rulings can be found here.

The Staff Union of the European Patent Office said that the tribunal had “put another nail in the coffin of the EPO’s pretention that its so-called ‘internal justice system’ is up to scratch”.

In November last year, the ILOAT set aside two decisions made by the EPO and criticised the Administrative Council in the process.

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13 December 2017   Staff members at the European Patent Office are holding a demonstration at the EPO’s Munich office today.
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1 February 2018   The International Labour Organization’s Administrative Tribunal (ILOAT) dismissed a series of complaints against the president of the European Patent Office, Benoît Battistelli, in its 125th session, held in October and November last year.
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28 June 2018   The International Labour Organization’s Administrative Tribunal reversed the downgrading of one staff member of the European Patent Office and reinstated another in decisions handed down earlier this week.