On the occasion of the upcoming celebration of the Inventor of the Year,SUEPO asks if the EPO has a reason to celebrate.(English,German)

Press interest in the impartiality debate followingR 0019/12continues, with apiece on awapatent's blog about stricter ethics in IP and yet another take ontheconflict-of-interest between VP3's management role and his chairmanship of the EBAover at EPLAW Patent Blog.

A few days ago, World IP Review published an article entitledEPO facing more strike action; yesterday, they followed it up withthe news that the President refuses to let the strike ballot go ahead.

The IPKat reports on thesurprising growth of support for Europe's Unified Patent Court.

Meanwhile,the EPO's Wikipedia entry has been updatedto take account of the recentdevelopments with regard to the independence of the members of the Boards of Appeal.

The IPKat Blog has published a post (printable version) reporting on the latest developments regarding the problems of governance at the EPO. First is the call for a strike named the Unity Initiative, and the second is the stripping of the chairman of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of his administrative functions following decisionR 0019/12.

French parliamentarian Philip Cordery'sletterabout the social situation at the EPO is now available inDutch, Italian and Spanish (as well as the English, French and Germantranslations already published).

Also, Pierre-Yves Le Borgn'sblog article is now available inGerman, English & Dutch as well as the original French publication.

In interlocutory decisionR 0019/12, the Chairman of the Enlarged Board of Appeal (at the same timeVice-President of DG3, VP 3) had to be replaced by his alternatebecause a party's suspicion of partiality was found to be objectivelyjustified since VP 3 was too closely involved in the Office'sadministration, e.g. in the MAC or in the GAC.

The story has been picked up by German legal-issues website juve.de, the French Blog du Droit Européen and the EPLAW Patent Blog

Nikolaos Chountis, a Greek member of the European Parliament, posed thisquestion to the Commissionon the current situation at the EPO and what they can do about it.

A group of Italian politicians filedwritten questionsto ministers on the current situation in the EPO; the reply isnot yet available.

The IPKat blog has publisheda post on the EPO's strike rules