Bonum Certa Men Certa

Virtual Injustice -- Part 6: Best Buddies With António

Previously in the series:

  1. Virtual Injustice -- Part 1: António's Increasingly Wonky Legal Fudge Factory
  2. Virtual Injustice -- Part 2: The ViCo Oral Proceedings of 28 May 2021
  3. Virtual Injustice -- Part 3: All the President's Men…
  4. Virtual Injustice -- Part 4: Mihály Ficsor, the EPO's Hungarian “Fixer”
  5. Virtual Injustice -- Part 5: Benoît's “Friends” in Budapest


Campinos and Ficsor
Ficsor (left) and Campinos (right) at the opening of the UPC judges' training centre in Budapest (March 2014).



Summary: Benoît Battistelli, António Campinos, and the Hungarian link of the EPO

We have already mentioned that as deputy director of the HIPO between 2000 and 2016, Ficsor acted as the Hungarian representative on various international bodies dealing with IP matters.



In particular, following Hungary's ratification of the EPC in 2003 [PDF], he acted as a national delegate on the Administrative Council of the EPO. Between 1 July 2005 and 31 December 2010 he was chairman of the Administrative Council's Committee on Patent Law.

"Between 1 July 2005 and 31 December 2010 he was chairman of the Administrative Council's Committee on Patent Law."Similarly, following Hungary's accession to the EU in 2004, he sat on the Administrative Board of the OHIM/EUIPO in Alicante.

In January 2011 he was appointed to the position of Chairman of the Administrative Board. In that capacity he had close contact with the executive director of the OHIM/EUIPO – who was at that time none other than a certain António Serge de Pinho Campinos, who will be familiar to readers of Techrights as the current President of the European Patent Office.

"On that occasion, they took the field together to cut of the ribbon at the inauguration of a new € 40 million building."As might be expected, Ficsor and Campinos turn up together on a regular basis in photo-ops from that period.

For example, the 2014 Annual Report of the HIPO includes a photo of Campinos and Ficsor at the opening of the UPC judges' training centre in Budapest in March of that year.

Campinos and Ficsor in Hungary
Campinos and Ficsor in Budapest in March 2014 - Source: Annual Report of the HIPO. [PDF]



Later in the same year, Ficsor and Campinos were spotted together in Alicante at the celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the EU's trademark office, OHIM/EUIPO in November 2014.

On that occasion, they took the field together to cut of the ribbon at the inauguration of a new € 40 million building.

"In the next part, we shall see how Ficsor’s close connections with Campinos came in handy when he was looking for new employment opportunities after he left the Hungarian IPO in 2016."The photo-op shows Campinos and Ficsor accompanied by Anne Rejnhold Jørgensen from the Danish Patent and Trademark Office, a close associate of DKPTO director Kongstad, who was the Chair of the OHIM/EUIPO Budgetary Committee at the time in question.

Battistelli also be seen, lurking in the background on the right hand edge of the photo.

Battistelli, Campinos and Ficsor
Campinos (left) and Ficsor (right) at the inauguration of a new OHIM building in Alicante (November 2014).



In the next part, we shall see how Ficsor's close connections with Campinos came in handy when he was looking for new employment opportunities after he left the Hungarian IPO in 2016.

Recent Techrights' Posts

They're Very Jealous of Richard Stallman and His Freedom (or Simple Lifestyle)
Jealousy is toxic because it can cause rational people to act irrationally and even severely harm themselves
Akira Urushibata on GNU coreutils
new message
There's Nothing Funny About Lawbreaking
There's plenty of room in society for humour, but "hacking" the state by breaking laws isn't cool or hip
 
Links 27/05/2025: Science Defunded, India Arrests an Academic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/05/2025: From Celsius to Fahrenheit and Deleting Social Control Media
Links for the day
Microsofters Have, in Effect, Attempted Extrajudicial Action Against Us
Courts and Judges (or Masters) don't exist to facilitate this kind of "bro" culture
UK High Court Masters Are Not Your Jesters, Microsoft
Judges aren't there for "funny" spectacles, they're there to act as arbiters in critical cases, not SLAPPs
Links 27/05/2025: Mass Layoffs at Volvo and More Evidence of 'AI' (Slop) Being a Passing Fad
Links for the day
The Code of Conduct (CoC) Gaslighting Phenomenon
There are still many people and projects foolish enough to outsource their labour to Microsoft via GitHub
Anouk Rozestraten (Deputy Director) Appears to Have Left the Free Software Foundation
Let's hope Rozestraten is still using and promoting Free software
More Mass Layoffs Coming Soon to Microsoft, Just a Question of When and How Many
Numbers from Washington were close to 5% and judging by prior rumours, it would be 5% + 5% (total 10%) at a later month
Links 27/05/2025: Bikes, Ideal Computers, and BYO
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 26, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, May 26, 2025
Richard Stallman's Milan Talk (Public Presentation) Was Packed, Video Available Soon
Looks like they even ran out of seats
Gemini Links 26/05/2025: Intangible Stuff and Slop Issues
Links for the day
The Openwashing Shills Initiative (OSI) - Part I: Complaints to IRS or USDOJ Needed
If enough people do it, this will be more effective, more so if people who are based in the US do it
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Lobbying and the OSI's Status at Stake
At the end we plan to summarise all the issues in one very long article
Breaking Into Other People's Devices Without Authorisation Isn't "Funny" or "Research"
“Chaos was the law of nature; order was the dream of man.”
The Issue Isn't the Internet, the Issue is How People Are Taught to Use or Misuse It
The Web is circling down the drain. The Internet is not.
A Healed Reputation of a Movement's Leader and His Robust Message
The more aggressively you push against resistors, the more credibility they will gain
Links 26/05/2025: Deletions from Microsoft's GitHub, Telegram Blocked in Vietnam
Links for the day
Linux Released Last Night and There's Already LLM Slop With Slop Images
BetaNoise does not seem to mind this anymore
Links 26/05/2025: Walmart Layoffs and DRM Dumpster Fire ('Old' Fire TV Devices Lose Netflix Access)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/05/2025: USB Camera Viewer and Fantasy Life
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 25, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 25, 2025
Links 25/05/2025: 15 Years of UK Legal Aid Applicant Data Grabbed and 2 Billion Discord Messages Leaked Online
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/05/2025: Farming and OpenBSD 7.7 on Acer Aspire ES 15
Links for the day
Fighting for Freedom is Much Better Than Fighting for Money
If life is about accumulation of money, then people will be "busy making money" till they die prematurely (with nothing to do with this money)
The Microsoft SLAPP Dossiers
A rather likely outcome is, they'll lose their licence to operate
Links 25/05/2025: Harvard’s Troubles and New Openwashing Examples
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/05/2025: Whales and Battery Replacement
Links for the day
Links 25/05/2025: Climate Action Ridiculed and "Tesla Executive Admits That Self-Driving Is Going Nowhere Fast"
Links for the day
The Next Two Phases of Our Open Source Initiative (OSI) Series
Whatever people used to think about the OSI is no longer applicable and its current acronym is a misleading misnomer
Richard Stallman Has Barely Changed
Collecting "estate" "assets"? That's not "success" in the eyes of Dr. Stallman
Public Talk by Richard Stallman (RMS) Tomorrow
Still advertised
Gemini Links 25/05/2025: Konsole Layout Changes and Capitulation to Surveillance World
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 24, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 24, 2025