António Campinos takes reins at EPO
António Campinos took up his position as president of the European Patent Office ( EPO) yesterday, replacing Benoît Battistelli.
The former head of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) joins amid a period of staff unrest at the office, which has experienced strikes, demonstrations and internal strain in recent years.
Despite reports of tension at the EPO, Campinos remains positive about taking up the position.
“The EPO is undoubtedly a success story and we want to build upon that by assessing with our staff and stakeholders if improvements can be made,” he commented.
“That means working to ensure that the office will not only be efficient, but also effective in delivering high-quality patents to our users to support Europe’s innovation sector.”
Campinos was most recently executive director at the EUIPO and was previously president of Portugal’s National Industrial Property Institute.
His tenure as EPO president will come with the additional challenge of addressing staff morale.
Last October, when Campinos was announced as the next EPO president, WIPR reported on the obstacles that he will have to tackle.
Robert Sackin, partner at Reddie & Grose, said that Campinos will inherit a “very unhappy workforce for many, many reasons”. Meanwhile, Thorsten Bausch, patent attorney at Hoffmann Eitle, described a “poisonous climate” between staff and management at the office.
Despite these tests for Campinos, WIPR identified three reasons why he may be able to calm tensions: a new era providing a break from the past; his past record of leading motivated and collaborative teams; and staff willingness to work with their new president.
Members of the IP community also expressed optimism about Campinos’s appointment to the office, with Avi Freeman, partner at Beck Greener, saying he was a sensible choice given his past experience.
In a recent development in the EPO-staff management dispute, on Thursday, June 28, WIPR reported that the International Labour Organization’s Administrative Tribunal reversed the downgrading of an EPO staff member and reinstated another.
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