The next demonstration will take place on Thursday 28 January in the Hague. The demonstrators will march peacefully from the French Embassy (at 12:00 on the Carnegieplein) to the German Embassy.
The first press reports on the recent disciplinary actions against key Staff Union officials in Munich can be found below:
The next demonstration will take place on Wednesday 20 January starting from the ISAR building at 12.30h. The demonstrators will march peacefully to the Bayerische Staatskanzlei.
SUEPO Munich received a reply from the Bavarian Ministry of Justice (translations are available in English, French and Dutch), Prof. Dr. Winfried Bausback, to the letter sent on 7 December 2016, in relation to the demonstration which took place on 10 December 2015. In his reply, he referred to the question posed by German MP Jutta Krellmann dated 8 October, which you could find here.
IPKAT reports on the outcome of the disciplinary procedures against three staff representatives/union officials.
Source: http://ipkitten.blogspot.de/2016/01/breaking-news-from-epo-suepo-officials.html
IPKAT (04 December 2015)
“Boards of Appeal tell AC: we were never consulted”
Source: http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2015/12/boards-of-appeal-tell-ac-we-were-never.html
WIPR (07 December 2015)
“WIPR survey: Readers vent anger at EPO dispute”
Source: http://www.worldipreview.com/news/wipr-survey-readers-vent-anger-at-epo-dispute-9288
IPKAT (08 December 2015)
“Merpel pays a brief visit to Eponia”
Source: http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2015/12/merpel-pays-brief-visit-to-eponia.html
WIPR (08 December 2015)
“EPO staff to hold third demo in as many weeks”
Source: http://www.worldipreview.com/news/epo-staff-to-hold-third-demo-in-as-many-weeks-9300
Heise online (09 December 2015)
“Europäisches Patentamt: Streit zwischen Führung und Mitarbeitern spitzt sich rasch zu” (translations available in English, French and Dutch)
Source: http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Europaeisches-Patentamt-Streit-zwischen-Fuehrung-und-Mitarbeitern-spitzt-sich-rasch-zu-3036971.html
FOSS Patents (10 December 2015)
“Why would a patent office be afraid of bloggers? Only if it has something to hide. Like the EPO.”
Source: http://www.fosspatents.com/2015/12/why-would-patent-office-be-afraid-of.html
Junge Welt (11 December 2015)
“Unrechtsstaat im Staate”
Source: http://www.jungewelt.de/2015/12-11/020.php
More can be found on Techrights: http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/EPO
Management is alleging that some of its senior members received threats, inside and outside of the Office. A spokesperson for the EPO told WIPR that “EPO officials (senior managers but also colleagues at working level) are increasingly subject to personal attacks and undue exposure through blogs, flyers, and calls for violence”.
If there have been individual threats, surely the Office will have acted directly against the culprit (and rightly so). But we have never seen a flier or a blog calling for violence. We wonder if such allegations are not fabricated to harness sympathy among staff and outsiders, at a time when senior management has (finally) landed under intense public scrutiny for their actions. No matter how much they try to portray themselves differently, (senior) managers are not the victims: they are the perpetrators of institutional violence, particularly violence directed against those who dare to express disagreement with certain policies.
Such cheap allegations discredit EPO staff. They call into question our integrity and are an insult to our dignity of honest employee. We do not deserve that. We are committed to seeking change through peaceful protest, negotiation, transparency, and the application of checks and balances - not through threats and intimidation.
Management should commit to the same.