The social conflict at the European Patent Office continues. The working climate has become toxic for both individual staff in the EPO and for the broader functioning of this European institution as a whole.

An overview of the latest events and an analysis of the current situation can be found in this publication.

FOSS Patents reports on the demonstration of more than 1000 EPO employees on 24 June 2015 in front of the ISAR buidling in Munich.
Florian Mueller also comments on the intervention of Axelle Lemaire, French State Secretary for Digital Economy, who used her keynote speech at the European Inventor Award ceremony of 11 June 2015 as an opportunity to comment on the social conflict in the EPO and express her government's concerns for the rights of EPO staff:

"It's really unusual in two regards. One, this speech was given at the European Inventor Award ceremony, an event at which the EPO wanted to celebrate itself. I consider that event a sad thing.In my opinion, a patent office that promotes in any way (by this I also mean the USPTO with its Steve Jobs patents exhibition) patents that are or could still be used in litigation miserably fails to be neutral and its leadership should be replaced.But for the EPO's leadership, that event is meant to be a day of joy and self-aggrandizement.The fact that a politician would touch onthe delicate issue of the EPO labor conflict and human rights issues on such an occasion gives those remarks about ten times more weight than if they had been made in daily business.Two, Mr. Battistelli is French and the national governments of officials of international organizations are usually the last ones to withdraw their support."

Elektronik Tidningen, a Swedish website, has also reported on the demonstration.

Ms Bergot, Principal Director of Human Resources of the EPO, has scheduled new meetings of the working group on "union recognition" between the administration and union officials. However, Mr Kongstad (Chairman of the Administrative Council) has still not reacted to the letter sent by SUEPO Central concerning the investigation of staff representatives and/or union executives during trilateral talks.

Pending Mr Kongstad's written answer, as also reiteratered in the Council meeting of 24/25 June 2015, SUEPO regrets it must decline the invitation at present. Of course, SUEPO is looking forward to developments making the resumption of meaningful discussions possible.

A letter of reply sent to Ms Bergot can be found here.

SUEPO organises on Wednesday 24 June 2015 a demonstration in Munich in front of the EPO Isar building (Bob-van-Benthem-Platz 1) starting at 12.30h.

The main purpose of the demonstration is to make it clear to the Members of the Administration that investigating your "social partner" with the private security firm Control Risks is not the best way to renew "social dialogue".

Our claims are still the same: respect for Rule of Law, for Freedom of Association and Honest Negotiation of our work package. But we do not forget the mission of the EPO as a public service created for the benefit of the citizens of Europe. That is why we continue to defend high quality searches and examinations as well as transparency.

IPKat reports on the European Inventor Award 2015 ceremony which took place on 11 June 2015 in Paris.Axelle Lemaire, French State Secretary for Digital Economy used her keynote speech as an opportunity to comment on the social conflict in the EPO and her government's concerns for the rights of EPO staff. She said:

"Innovation is an imperative, an economic imperative. And what's true for technology is also true for public innovation, modes of governance, and social innovation. Under this heading, while it’s not the object of our meeting this morning, the French government knows of the social difficulties that are expressed within the EPO and in this regard, the Office has an exemplary duty of absolute transparency in the rights of employees working there."

The video of the event is hosted on the European Commission A/V services and shows the full speech in French (starting from 109:40 for the criticisms).
Les Echos, the French newspaper acting as communication partner for the Office, initially released a report of the event including Ms Lemaire's criticisms, but later removed them.

De Volkskrant(printable version) reports that "SUEPO is taking the Dutch government to court.In February, the Court of Appeal ruled that the EPO in Rijswijk is breaching human rights. Despite this, the Dutch government has not intervened, whileSUEPO is of the opinion that it should."

"In response to clarification requested by Members of Parliaments, Minister Van der Steur (Justice) wrote'Enforcement of the ruling would be in conflict with the Kingdom's obligations underinternational law'."

"The Dutch government has a financial interest that means it won't come down too hard on the EPO.The economy does well from the establishment of international organisations on Dutch soil.In Rijswijk, the EPO is currently building a new office for more than 200 million euro."

Translations in English, French and German are available by scrolling through the document.The article was also published in the paper version of 9 June 2015.

The JURI committee on Legal Affairs of the European Parliament has invited Benoît Battistelli to a public hearing on 15 June 2015.In preparation of this hearing the Policy Department C (Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs) drafted a report The European Patent Office State of Play - In-depth analysis (printable version)

Legal counsels of SUEPO sent a letter in order to complete the picture portrayed in the report. A copy of the letter can be found here:

"There are serious concerns that [the] internal structure [of the EPO] does not meet the standards of transparency and labour conditions which the EU institution expect of themselves.[The Unity Patent] project will be in jeopardy if it relies on a system in violation of fundamental human rights and on deficient labour conditions, and if staff performing quasi-judicial work does not enjoy internationally acceptable and agreed legal standards."

Translations are available in French, German and Dutch.

IPKat provides an overview of the events at the European Patent Office since 1 January 2015.Merpel concludes as follows:

• "The Administrative Council (AC) has shown some signs of independent thought, but there's a lot more to do if it is to bring the EPO into line with the standards of the national patent offices whose heads make up the AC."
• "The delegates know full well that if they tried to subject their own staff at home to the same regime as in the EPO (i.e. the investigations, the unilateral changes to promotion structures and invalidity benefits), they would find themselves in court and probably out of a job due to the revolt of civil servants. But when they board the plane to Munich, somehow the standards slip."
• "The AC continues to approve proposals for social reforms when it knows that the staff’s input into these proposals have been deliberately silenced. They are aware of the atmosphere of fear pervading the office, and now they know that someone in the EPO is spying on attorneys and potentially on themselves.Will this be enough for someone to cry "halt"? Merpel is, as she said, eternally hopeful."

The Süddeutsche Zeitungreports that Thomas Petri, the Bavarian Data Protection Commissioner wants to have an external data protection supervisor deployed at the European Patent Office.It has become a matter of public knowledge that publicly accessible computers at the EPO were placed under observation using surveillance technology after the receipt of letters containing [allegedly] defamatory remarks against the Management.

Data Protection Commissioner Petri previously investigated the data protection arrangements at the EPO in the Spring of 2014 following a complaint and he came to the conclusion that they were deficient. "It emerged that nobody was really in charge", told Petri.

Translations in English,French andDutch are available by scrolling through the document.

In a well attended General Assembly, staff of the EPO adopted a resolution to be sent to Heiko Maas, Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection.The letter informs Heiko Maas of the investigation of staff representatives and/or union executives by the company Control Risks during the trilateral talks on union recognition.

A copy of the letter can be found here. Translations inEnglish,French andDutch are also available.