Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part XVI – A Promising Start Followed by an Unfortunate Cock-Up

Series index:

  1. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part I – More Captured Delegates?
  2. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part II – Old Wine in New Bottles...
  3. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part III – Introducing the Finnish “Facilitator”
  4. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part IV – Martti Enäjärvi and His “Good Brother” Networks
  5. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part V – A Man With a Conviction...
  6. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part VI – "A Good Friend of Estonia and a Steady Cooperation Partner”
  7. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part VII – A Self-Appointed “Select Committee”
  8. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part VIII – Pulling for the Portuguese Pretender?
  9. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part IX – António's Faithful Acolyte in Alicante
  10. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part X – A Pan-European “Good Brother” Network Celebration?
  11. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part XI – With a Little Help From My Friends…
  12. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part XII – Battistelli and His Baltic Fiefdoms
  13. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part XIII – Out With the Old, in With the New?
  14. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part XIV – Business as Usual in Tallinn
  15. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part XV – Worse Than “a Backward Kolkhoz”…
  16. You are here ☞ A Promising Start Followed by an Unfortunate Cock-Up


Arūnas Želvys sitting
Arūnas Želvys got off to a promising start but was brought to a halt in 2019 due to an administrative cock-up.



Summary: A look at the Lithuanian EPO delegation, which was an enabler of Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos over the past decade or so

In the last part we saw that Arūnas Želvys was appointed as the new Director-General of the Lithuanian Patent Office in March 2015.



Želvys studied law at the University of Vilnius and finished up with a masters' degree in 2006. He later completed a Ph.D. in 2011 with a doctoral dissertation on the subject of "Problems of Trademark Licensing".

Arūnas Želvys, Vilnius University Ph.D.
Želvys completed a Ph.D. in 2011 with a dissertation [PDF] on the subject of "Problems of Trademark Licensing".



His career at the Lithuanian Patent Office began in 2006 [PDF], when he started out as a "Chief Specialist" in the Law and International Affairs Division.

Between November 2012 and February 2014, Želvys was seconded to Brussels as an Attaché for Industrial Property and Civil Law matters at Lithuania's Permanent Representation to the EU.

He returned to Vilnius in March 2014 to head the Law and International Affairs Division of the Lithuanian Patent Office.

When Rimvydas Naujokas was put out to grass in June 2014, Želvys applied for the top job and was appointed as Director-General in March 2015.

Arūnas Želvys and Battistelli
Arūnas Želvys signing a bilateral cooperation agreement with Battistelli in March 2017.



As the new head of delegation on the EPO's Administrative Council, Želvys basically continued the established tradition of deferring to the line "proposed" (i.e. dictated) by the Office management. Similar to his counterpart Margus Viher in Estonia - he was not noted for asking any 'awkward' questions.

"Želvys seemed to have got off to a promising start as Director-General of the Lithuanian Patent Office. However, his career progression was blighted by an unfortunate administrative cock-up."In March 2017 he posed for the obligatory photo-op with Battistelli in connection with the signing of a bilateral "cooperation agreement".

Želvys seemed to have got off to a promising start as Director-General of the Lithuanian Patent Office. However, his career progression was blighted by an unfortunate administrative cock-up.

In March 2019, it was reported in the Lithuanian media that he had been reappointed for a further term of five years.

However, some months later in June 2019 it was revealed that his re-appointment had not been in conformity with the law governing civil service appointments which had been amended at the end of 2018.

According to the regulations in force until 31 December 2018, the director of a state institution such as the Patent Office could be appointed for a second term without a competition.

From 1 January 2018, there was no longer any possibility for such direct reappointment and the appointment had to be made on the basis of an open competition.

In the case of Želvys, he had been directly reappointed in March 2019 [PDF] without a competition because someone in the supervising ministry had overlooked the fact that the law had changed.

"From 1 January 2018, there was no longer any possibility for such direct reappointment and the appointment had to be made on the basis of an open competition."As soon as the flaw in his reappointment was discovered [PDF], Želvys reacted by resigning on 4 April 2019.

However, between May and August 2019 he remained as a "Senior IP Advisor" and "Acting Director" of the Lithuanian Patent Office until the new competitive reappointment procedure had been conducted.

When Želvys spoke to the press in June 2019 he stated that he was unsure as to whether or not he wanted to run for another term as Director-General. His final decision in this regard remains unclear and it is not known whether he actually took part in the selection competition.

In any case, whether he was a contender or not, the position was awarded to someone else.

As we shall see later in the concluding part of the series, Arūnas Želvys made a brief foray into the private sector and finally ended up as a Liaison Officer in EUIPO's Brussels Liaison Office.

Irina Urbonė
Irina Urbonė started her term as director of the Lithuanian Patent Office on 24 September 2019.



On 24 September 2019, it was announced on the official website of the Lithuanian Patent Office that the new Director-General Irina Urbonė [PDF] had started her term.

Želvys' successor [PDF] at the Lithuanian Patent Office is a bit of a dark horse.

The only information available on her LinkedIn page [PDF] is that she was a "lawyer" at a "state institution". According to Latvian sources, before taking up her position at the head of the Patent Office she was in charge of the Legal Department of the Ministry for Internal Affairs. She doesn't appear to have any identifiable background in "IP" matters, whether trademarks or patents.

"More recently it was announced that the Lithuanian delegation on the EPO's Administrative Council would from now on be headed by Lina Mickienė, the current Deputy Director of the Lithuanian Patent Office."Compared to her predecessor, Urbonė seems to be rather publicity shy and tends to avoid photo-ops.

All that is known about her track record at the EPO so far is that she signed off on an agreement about "search co-operation" in December 2020. [PDF]

Irina Urbonė and Campinos
Irina Urbonė signed off on an agreement relating to "search co-operation" between the Lithuanian Patent Office and the EPO in December 2020.



More recently it was announced that the Lithuanian delegation on the EPO's Administrative Council would from now on be headed by Lina Mickienė, the current Deputy Director of the Lithuanian Patent Office.

"In the absence of any further information it's anybody's guess what exactly is going on behind the scenes at the Lithuanian Patent Office these days."It is not clear what has occasioned this change. It could be a sign that Urbonė is preparing to jump ship and getting ready for a handover to Mickienė. But it might just as well be a routine delegation of responsibility.

In the absence of any further information it's anybody's guess what exactly is going on behind the scenes at the Lithuanian Patent Office these days.

Lina Mickienė
Lina Mickienė new head of the Lithuanian delegation on the EPO's Administrative Council.



In the next part we will turn our attention to the third "IP" office of the Baltic trio - the Latvian Patent Office - to see how this has fared since the departure of Zigrīds Aumeisters in 2010.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Slop Nihilism is Funded by Big Oil
Eventually human civilisation will destroy itself
Professor Eben Moglen Recovering From Open Heart Surgery
From his public pages (this is not secret)
There Are Red Hat (IBM) Layoffs, But Google News is Infested With Slopfarms
It contributes a lot to misinformation and it encourages plagiarism
USA Not a Place for Free Speech
In America, as in the US, the attacks seem more enhanced or advanced these days
 
Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Flashing LineageOS and ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day
Links 17/09/2025: Long COVID Study, "Exposing Pegasus", and Chatbots Exposing Sensitive Data
Links for the day
Links 17/09/2025: Secret Settlement for Internet Archive and Google’s LLM Slop Summaries Attracting Lawsuits
Links for the day
The True Cost of 'Generative Models'
Funded and promoted by the companies that profit from the waste
'Big Slop' Attacks Contemporary Information/Knowledge and Creative Works, 'Big Copyright' (Cartel) Attacks the Old
Someone at IA will hopefully "blow the whistle" on what they actually agreed
Why We Find It Difficult to Trust Rust
A comparison between C/C++ and Rust
Watching the OSI: Our Series Will Carry on Irrespective of the Chief's 'Resignation'
the OSI isn't even the real guardian of the term "Open Source"
Just What LibreOffice Needs? Another Language? (Rust)
what's all this concern about memory safety?
Many Microsoft Managers Are Leaving
"Hey hi" chaff or chaff about "hey hi" cannot eternally distract from the difficulties inside the company
Tomorrow, Microsoft's Tim Anderson's 'The Register MS' Offshoot Will Have Been Inactive for 2 Months (There's Also a Slop Problem)
We've already caught The Register MS using LLM slop for articles
Microsoft's Chief Legal Officer Leaves Microsoft After Nearly 30 Years
And not retiring
Even Windows Users Are Having Problems With "Secure Boot"
When it comes to security - Microsoft strives for the very opposite
Another Competition Crime of Microsoft, Long Facilitated and Advocated by a Bad Actor, Who is Funded by a Third Party to Commit Extortion Against People Who Have Correctly and Repeatedly Warned About It for Over 13 Year
We must always go back to the core issues
3 More Reasons to Replace Mozilla Firefox With LibreWolf
Thankfully there are de-enshittified versions of Firefox
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 16, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Links 17/09/2025: Google Layoffs in "Hey Hi" (AI), Perplexity Hit With More "Hey Hi" (Plagiarism) Lawsuits
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Reclaiming Things in a Digital Age and Moon Phases in CGI
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Google News is Slop, Google News is Plagiarism, Google News is Dying
Google is off the rails
Links 16/09/2025: "The Censorship Alarm Is Ringing in the Wrong Direction" and ASRock Does Microsoft E.E.E. on GNU/Linux
Links for the day
Serious "Breach of Confidentiality of Personal Data" in Europe's Second-Largest Institution, the EPO
Yes, the same EPO that routinely uses "data protection" and "GDPR" as a pretext for hiding or covering up its corruption and white-collar crimes (it even uses that as an excuse for refusing to obey courts' orders)
Adrienne Rockenhaus Says Her Husband Was Arrested for Running Tor and Denied Basic Rights in the United States
the US seems to be getting "russified" in its approach towards Tor
This is What Happens When Microsoft Canonical Lets Decisions on Ubuntu be Made by a Youngster From the British Army (Where He Did Mass Surveillance)
"Is Ubuntu Compromised?"
Back Doored Windows Giving GNU/Linux a Hard Time (Under the Guise of 'Security')
Is this complication intentional? Most likely, yes
Links 16/09/2025: Science, Security, and Conflicts
Links for the day
Gemini Links 16/09/2025: Command-line Options in POSIX Shell and Introducing Acre 0.9
Links for the day
Microsoft 'Secure' Boot Versus Dual Boot With GNU/Linux
they're meant to assume everything is OK
Links 16/09/2025: While Oracle Pretends to be Rich It's Firing About 70 MySQL Workers, "Oracle's Revenge" (Faking Demand With "AI")
Links for the day
Microsoft Has Just Published a New Web Page About "Secure Boot Update Process" (Microsoft Also Admits Issues; PCs Can Stop Booting)
Why was this page issued and published only hours ago?
Microsoft Lunduke: I Spread Hate and Then I Receive Hate
Cry us a river, Microsoft Lunduke
"Use Wayland" Isn't a Bugfix for X (X11 is Still Necessary)
They tell us X is "dead" and we must all be herded into Wayland ASAP
"Disable Secure Boot and Fast Boot. Wipe and Start Over."
At least they didn't say, buy a new computer...
The Oracle Ponzi Scheme
Oracle isn't doing well, but it's nowadays fashionable to say "clown" and "hey hi" to prop up one's stock, even based on nothing at all
The New Head of OSI is an "Hey Hi" (AI) Obsessed Person
when Bryant says "AI" that doesn't mean AI
Taking Out the Battery, Opening Up Your Computer, Just Like a "Normie" Would
At this stage, any person who still says "enable Secure Boot" is misguided or persuaded by companies that sell rootkits
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers and Slopfarms Still Infesting Google News (Fake 'Articles' About "Linux" Spreading FUD)
searching for "Linux" today yields a lot of FUD
"Governments, local authorities, schools and hospitals can lead by example by procuring only Free Software"
Crossposted from Tux Machines
Cindy Cohn Leaving the Electronic Frontier Foundation While Its Co-founder John Gilmore, Whom She Apparently Helped Oust, Will Celebrate 40 Years of the Free Software Foundation, Inc.
EFF has been busy hoarding GAFAM money, whereas the latter is where all the real activism is done
The Reach of Techrights Has Broadened
We nowadays cover a broader range of issues
"Google is Googlebombing KDE's Project Banana"
So is Google googlebombing KDE's Project Banana? You decide.
Complicating Things for No Actual Benefit, Just Added Risk and More Difficulties Adding GNU/Linux and BSDs
Watch what it's like for people who wish to use BSDs
Some Very Large IRC Networks Are Growing
IRC will turn 38 next year
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 15, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 15, 2025
Links 16/09/2025: Autumn Party, RPG Planet, and Optical ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day
Geminispace Growing at Pace of Over 10% Per Year
Contrary to what some pessimists try to claim
Linux Mint Forums Today: Disable 'Secure Boot', It Doesn't Improve Security, It's Just a Microsoft Obstacle to GNU/Linux Users
They also mention MOK
What Ruben Amorim and Stefano Maffulli Have in Common
Censors Wikipedia and Social Control Media
Microsoft Won't Cooperate in Trying to Tackle EPO Corruption (Microsoft Profits From This Corruption)
Use something like BigBlueButton, Jami, Ring, and Jitsi instead
Solved Less Than an Hour Ago: Trying to Escape Windows, 'Secure Boot' Gets in the Way
'Secure Boot' wasn't meant to even exist in the first place
Stefano Maffulli, Executive Director of the Open Source Initiative, Resigns or Gets Removed (We'll Continue Covering OSI Scandals)
A dozen mentions of "AI", not much about "Open Source"
Andy Has Just Nailed It (Regarding Complexity and Failure, a la UEFI)
The users no longer own or control what they buy
Compatibility Support Module (CSM) Versus GNU/Linux Simplicity
what Andy recently called "solutionism"
Links 15/09/2025: "Postal Traffic to US Down by Over 80%" and 'Smart' Spinozacampus Laundry Room Goes AWOL
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/09/2025: Dungeon Hustle and Deleting Oneself From the Net
Links for the day
Breach of EPO's Duty of Care or Cigna Reimbursement Issues
This is the sort of thing that motivated Luigi Mangione to assassinate a CEO
Ask Ubuntu About "Secure Boot" Violation and Laptops That Don't Boot GNU/Linux
Does anyone still believe that "Secure Boot" has anything at all to do with security?
We Are Sad to Hear the Story of Jonathan Riddell, Champion of KDE and GNU/Linux on Desktops/Laptops
I have enormous respect for Jonathan and everything he has done
Talking About the Problem vs Talking to the Problem
Wanting an audience is never a good excuse for compromising one's values and principles
Focusing on Patents
The reason we cover the EPO so much is that it's close to home
"Secure Boot Violation": The 'Joys' of Fake Security Gone Wrong
Not everyone reboots every day
Links 15/09/2025: Russia Invades Romanian Airspace, Penske Media Sues Google Over LLM Slop
Links for the day
Links 15/09/2025: Bitcoin ATMs Scam and "Conservative Cryptography" (Backdoors Fantasies)
Links for the day
EPO Imitates Microsoft: "Three Days or More Per Week" Inside the Office to Get a Desk to Work on; "the Office Breaches Its Promise Towards Staff and Acts in Breach of Its Duty of Care"
The EPO serves no actual function in Europe
Links 15/09/2025: Political Affairs, Censorship, and Copyrights
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/09/2025: Music Genres, Invisible Networks, and Akademy 2025
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 14, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 14, 2025