FOSS Patents, "1,000 EPO employees took to the streets of Munich to protest hidden surveillance, other violations"
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.