CONTENT SYNDICATION
*ATOM* FEED:

CONTENT SYNDICATION
RSS 0.91 FEED:

BLOGROLL OPML:

Search in IPJUR.COM

BLOG@IP::JUR

Patent Attorney Axel H Horns' Blog on Intellectual Property Law.

Disclaimer & About This Website

Visit the archives

Friday, February 25, 2005

Turmoil at the EPO in The Hague, NL.

A

very strange thing has happened: The President of the European Patent Office feels that the situation of the EPO staff in The Hague has degraded so much that there seems to be no other alternative than to make the problem widely known to the public: The Netherlands seem to have amended their laws concerning foreigners residing in NL in a way that even EPO staff runs into severe trouble:

"Rijswijk/Munich, 24 February 2005 - In its endeavour to reach an agreement with the Dutch authorities on treatment of its 2.700 staff in Rijswijk, the European Patent Office (EPO) continues to experience serious problems. For a number of years now, changes to Dutch regulations on identification and tax law have presented the EPO with ongoing difficulties. Negotiations with the Government of the Netherlands are under way with a view to redefining, in a new Seat Agreement, the conditions for treatment of the EPO as an international organisation.

In a recent statement to the Office's staff members in Rijswijk, the President of the EPO, Alain Pompidou, wrote: "I am deeply committed to the future of our branch at The Hague as an integral, essential part of the European Patent Organisation. However, the situation with respect to renegotiating a Seat Agreement with the Dutch authorities is frustrating. It is so serious that I recently wrote to Minister Bot, stating that it was affecting the smooth functioning of the EPO's branch at The Hague."

Many of the problems the EPO and its staff are encountering with the Dutch authorities are related to the use of ID cards for EPO staff, their spouses, partners and family members with the right to reside in the Netherlands. This directly affects areas such as the use of foreign driving licences and the issuance of work permits for family members of EPO staff. One main cause of the problems is that the definition of "family members" laid down in the EPO's Service Regulations is not directly comparable with the definition applied by the Dutch authorities, particularly with regard to staff members having non-EU nationality.

Recent changes in Dutch tax law implemented without prior consultation with the Office, constitute an additional source of disagreement between the two sides.

To respond appropriately to these problems, the EPO recently created an internal task force to deal with all issues relating to the current and future Seat Agreements. This will not only involve diplomatic activities to resolve the pending issues: "If necessary, we envisage taking legal action against those Dutch authorities that are in breach of the Seat Agreement", says the EPO President. Furthermore, the Office has put a dedicated helpdesk in place to assist the staff affected by the current situation.

The continuing problems have recently given rise to industrial action and have led a majority of staff to state that they would be ready to leave the Netherlands at short notice. [...]"

What can be done if the Dutch Government is unwilling to comply? Moving the EPO The Hague Operations to England or Poland? Anyway, there would be a lot of trouble also for the "customers" of the EPO who would have to wait even longer for the next Office Action in their cases.

Hi,

There is also the issue of the new EPO building that was being planned ever since I first heard of the EPO, and which has never actually been built, due in part to a certain lack of administrative will from the authorities responsible for building permits in Rijswijk. So the EPO have a long time score to settle here too.

As I understand it today, the employees at Rijswijk could in practice actually work anywhere else, since all of the documentation and work support materials have been dematerialized, i.e. everything is done via the computer system. So indeed, if the worst came to the worst, the EPO could just pull out of the Hague and kiss the Dutch authorities goodbye. In terms of staff relocation, I seem to recall that the employment terms and conditions specify that EPO personnel can be relocated if the management so decides.

Ah yes, I hear you cry, but where would they go ? Well Poland, as you state, is an idea, but the EPO could simply expand its operations in Berlin, which has been a secondary Search office for years, assuming that it could find the office space.

As to increased delays, I don't believe that there would be any major impact, although it would probably put a dampener on the President's publicly stated desire to bring the whole examination procedure to less than 3 years in all.

# posted by athurgood : 28 February, 2005 18:37

Visit the archives

< ? law blogs # >

Technorati Profile

Please read the Disclaimer & About This Website (Pflichtangaben gemäss TDG) section. Feel free to contact PA Axel H Horns via e-mail horns@ipjur.com. BEWARE: DO NOT SEND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION UNENCRYPTED VIA E-MAIL. USE OF ENCRYPTION SOFTWARE IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. PA AXEL H HORNS IS PROVIDING SUPPORT FOR ENCRYPTED E-MAIL MESSAGES USING PGP OR PGP COMPATIBLE FORMATS. THE PGP PUBLIC KEY FOR PA AXEL H HORNS IS AVAILABLE HERE. THE GnuPG PUBLIC KEY FOR PA AXEL H HORNS IS AVAILABLE HERE. Dipl.-Phys. Axel H Horns is Patentanwalt (German Patent Attorney), European Patent Attorney as well as European Trade Mark Attorney. In particular, he is Member of:
	VPP