Battistelli suspends a member of the Boards of Appeal
The decision of Mr Battistelli to suspend a member of the Boards of Appeal is well covered in the IP blogs(IPKat, JUVE and FOSS Patents).
Noticeably, FOSS patents and IPKat report on a letter sent to Christoph Ernst, Head of the German delegation and Federal Ministry of Justice, by Dr. Mueller-Stoy who worked for Microsoft, Amazon and major automotive companies.
In this letter, Dr. Mueller-Stoy urges the national governments controlling the EPO"to take measures which are appropriate for safeguarding the independence of the Boards (i.e., the EPO-internal courts)" in light of measures of President Battistelli that "ultimately discredit" the patent system as a whole. The penultimate sentence of the email describes the current situation at the EPO in drastic terms:
"In addition to these described developments at the Boards of Appeal, there seems to currently prevail an 'atmosphere of fear and terror' which results in numerous disciplinary procedures against unwelcome staff members of the EPO."