European Patent Office staff to demonstrate for reforms

The international Staff Union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) has called on the staff of the office to strike on Thursday 18th of September, and to demonstrate in Brussels for a reform of its supervisory board. The strike and demonstration are timed to coincide with meeting in the Belgian capital of the executive of the patent office, under its president Alison Brimelow, to seek approaches to a "strategic renovation". The employee representatives expect around 300 staff members from the patent offices in Munich, Berlin, The Hague and Vienna to attend the protest rally.

SUEPO considers that the supervisory board, one of the main executive organs of the EPO, is not acting in the interests of the high-quality legal protection of commercial rights that would actually strengthen European industry, science and innovation. The union attributes this to the very composition of the supervisory board, pointing out that it consists almost exclusively of representatives of the national patent offices, who have their own interests. It says many of the national authorities are financially dependent on the fees they earn, which are in turn determined by the work of the European Patent Office (EPO). The result, it claims, is that the maximum possible number of patents are being granted, and that this has been detrimental to patent quality, which has for years been upheld on paper only.

The mood among the EPO workforce has long been grim. In June last year, the EPO's examiners held a warning strike at the Munich head office and a demo in Bern in front of the Swiss Patent Office, to vent their annoyance at conflicts between national and European interests on the supervisory board as well as the direction of management policy. Prior to that, in 2006 staff members demanded "time for quality" by, on three occasions, holding protest campaigns and strikes. According to an internal staff survey held in June, only six per cent of the workforce have confidence in the leadership qualities of top management. Furthermore, only nine per cent of patent examiners believe that Brimelow and her vice chairmen are actively committed to improving the quality of patents.

Heiner Flocke, president of an association set up by German small and medium-sized enterprises to protect their interests in patent affairs, supports SUEPO. He said in an interview that the weaknesses of the European patent system result mainly from the lack of patent quality and the resulting flood of patents. Speaking for the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises, he deplores the fact that "patents are increasingly being used tactically and as offensive weapons or as instruments of power … This abuse of the patent system is endangering many promising innovations by the small and medium-sized enterprises that are the backbone of the German economy."

Flocke does not trust the patent office to make the necessary changes of its own volition. He is demanding that industry should have a voice in the committees controlling the EPO, in order to establish the preconditions for sustainable positive developments. He sees the principle of separation in patent jurisdiction as a further serious problem. Long before a decision is reached in opposition proceedings or revocation proceedings against a patent, the complaint of a patent holder in infringement proceedings, running in parallel, can already have been upheld and the verdict enforced, he says, giving firms an ability, even with patents that ultimately cannot be upheld, to inflict damage on competitors that cannot be made good later. One solution, he suggests, would be to suspend such enforcement until a decision is made on the lawfulness of a patent.

(Stefan Krempl)

(trk)