25/05/2022 (Agence Europe) – In an interview with Kluwer Patent Blog on Monday 23 May, Eric De Brabandere, a professor specialising in international litigation at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, said he believed that the creation of a specialised administrative tribunal could be a way to improve the resolution of labour disputes in the European Patent Office (EPO). According to the specialist, Member States have no interest in tackling social problems within the Office as long as it delivers the expected results. Moreover, the Office has little media visibility and remains unknown to the general public, so external pressure has always been non-existent, except during the ‘Battistelli’ era (see EUROPE 12504/11). For the professor, the solution would be to create an administrative tribunal dedicated to social issues with judges who have no connection with the EPO, citing as an example UNAT, the United Nations Appeals Tribunal, which was founded in 2009. (PH)