Bonum Certa Men Certa

The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXIV: The Balkan League - Romania

Series parts:

  1. The EPO's Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part I: Let the Sunshine In!
  2. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part II: A “Unanimous” Endorsement?
  3. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part III: Three Missing Votes
  4. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IV: The Founding States
  5. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part V: Germany Says “Ja”
  6. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VI: A Distinct Lack of Dutch Courage
  7. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VII: Luxembourgish Laxity
  8. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VIII: Perfidious Albion and Pusillanimous Hibernia
  9. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IX: More Holes Than Swiss Cheese
  10. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part X: Introducing the Controversial Christian Bock
  11. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XI: “General Bock” - Battistelli's Swiss Apprentice?
  12. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XII: The French Connection
  13. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XIII: Battistelli's Iberian Facilitators - Spain
  14. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XIV: Battistelli's Iberian Facilitators - Portugal
  15. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XV: Et Tu Felix Austria…
  16. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVI: The Demise of the Austrian Double-Dipper
  17. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVII: The Non-Monolithic Nordic Bloc
  18. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVIII: Helsinki's Accord
  19. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IXX: The Baltic States
  20. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XX: The Visegrád Group
  21. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXI: The Balkan League – The Doyen and His “Protégée”
  22. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXII: The Balkan League - North Macedonia and Albania
  23. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXIII: The Balkan League - Bulgaria
  24. YOU ARE HERE ☞ The Balkan League - Romania


Gabor Varga
Head of the Romanian delegation in June 2013: Gábor Varga.



Summary: Romania's patent office has been in flux this past decade, occasionally led by people with no relevant experience, but rather political connections (like EPO President António Campinos) and sometimes forged documents and fake degrees

In this part we take a look at the Romanian delegation, which in June 2013 was headed by Gábor Varga, Director-General of the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks (OSIM).



Varga was a longtime acquaintance of Benoît Battistelli and their connections go back at least as far as 2006 when the French INPI concluded a bilateral cooperation agreement with the Romanian OSIM.

Battistelli and Varga
Varga was a longtime acquaintance of Battistelli and their connections go back at least as far as 2006.
Source: OSIM Annual Report 2006.



Unfortunately for Varga, shortly after he had assisted in the rubber-stamping of Battistelli's "Strike Regulations" in June 2013, he was dismissed as head of OSIM, following his conviction by a Romanian court on charges of “causing a EUR 300,000 damage to the state agency via an acquisition contract for IT services”, as reported in the Romanian media.

OSIM's Alexandru Ghinea
With the complicity of his boss Gábor Varga, OSIM employee Alexandru Ghinea reportedly managed to obtain additional income of over € 40,000 using a forged diploma.



At the same time Varga also came under investigation on separate charges of having assisted in concealing the discovery of forged documents in an employee's file.

According to Romanian media reports, Alexandru Ghinea had been recruited at the OSIM on the basis of his secondary education qualification. Later, however, he produced "proof" that he had graduated from the Law School of the Romanian-American University. On the basis of this bogus diploma, he was promoted in 2009 to head of OSIM's Human Resources department. Subsequently, he managed to obtain a secondment to the EU trademark agency in Alicante.

"At the same time Varga also came under investigation on separate charges of having assisted in concealing the discovery of forged documents in an employee's file."Investigators claimed that Ghinea had used the bogus diploma to obtain additional income of €€ 25,000 from OSIM between 2009 and 2012 and a further € 17,000 from OHIM, during the short time that he worked at the EU agency. When the forgery was exposed, Ghinea was forced to leave OHIM and return to Romania where he found himself facing charges of falsification of official documents.

OSIM Director-General Varga was accused of complicity in the affair because of his failure to report the forgery to the law enforcement authorities.

Since Varga's departure in the summer of 2013, OSIM has gone through an impressive number of directors and "acting directors", a total of eight in all:

● Alexandru Cristian Åžtrenc (ad interim); ● Ionel Muscalu (September 2013 to October 2014); ● Alexandru-Ioan Andrei (October 2014 to April 2016); ● Bucura Ionescu (May 2016 to March 2017); ● Adriana Aldescu (ad interim); ● IonuÅ£ Barbu (December 2017 to December 2019); ● Mitrita Hahue (ad interim); and, ● Marian Cătălin Burcescu (appointed May 2021).

Four of these appointees, namely Alexandru Cristian Åžtrenc [PDF], Bucura Ionescu, Adriana Aldescu and Mitrita Hahue were longtime career civil servants at the OSIM with credible qualifications in legal and/or administrative affairs.

However, the other four were openly political appointees - and in most cases the individuals in question have been affiliated with more than one party over the course of their careers.

Alexandru Cristian Strenc, Bucura Ionescu, Adriana Aldescu, and Mitrita Hahue
From l. to r.: Alexandru Cristian Åžtrenc, Bucura Ionescu, Adriana Aldescu and Mitrita Hahue, all longtime career civil servants at the OSIM without political connections.



Ionel Muscalu, Alexandru-Ioan Andrei, Ionut Barbu, and Marian Catalin Burcescu
From l. to r.: Ionel Muscalu, Alexandru-Ioan Andrei, Ionuţ Barbu and Marian Cătălin Burcescu, all party political hacks who were rewarded with the top job at the OSIM.



No less than three of the aforementioned "political appointees" come from Giurgiu, a town in the south of Romania near the border with Bulgaria and each of them was strongly involved in local politics.

The individuals in question are Ionel Muscalu, Alexandru-Ioan Andrei and Ionuţ Barbu.

"However, the other four were openly political appointees - and in most cases the individuals in question have been affiliated with more than one party over the course of their careers."In the case of Muscalu, his involvement in local politics began in 1997 with the Giurgiu branch of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the largest centre-right political party in Romania, variously described as "conservative-liberal" or "liberal-conservative".

In 2014, Muscalu switched his political allegiance to the Alliance of Liberals & Democrats (ALDE), a minor liberal political party which brands itself as "social-liberal".

Muscalu
Ionel Muscalu started his political career with the PNL but switched his allegiance to ALDE in 2014.



More recently, Muscalu has returned to his original political "home" in the PNL. In the December 2020 elections he was an unsuccessful PNL candidate for a seat in the Romanian Senate.

Ionel Muscalu
In December 2020, Muscalu was back on the PNL ticket in an unsuccessful bid to get elected to the Senate.



Like his predecessor Muscalu, Alexandru-Ioan Andrei started his political career with the Giurgiu youth branch of the PNL. However, around 2014 he switched his allegiance to the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the largest "post-communist" left-wing political party in Romania.

Andrei's new-found PSD affiliations secured him the top job at the OSIM in October 2014 under the PSD-led government of Victor Ponta.

According to an article published by the satirical magazine Catavencii, Andrei lacked the necessary academic qualifications for the position and his tenure at the OSIM was characterised by cronyism, nepotism and extravagant spending for his own personal comfort and benefit.

"...Andrei lacked the necessary academic qualifications for the position and his tenure at the OSIM was characterised by cronyism, nepotism and extravagant spending for his own personal comfort and benefit."Andrei left the OSIM in April 2016, apparently to focus on his political career and other interests. In December of the same year, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies - the lower house of the Romanian Parliament - on the PSD ticket for Giurgiu.

In the Romanian media, Andrei has been described [PDF] in unflattering terms as a "Nabob" - or a "conspicuously wealthy" person - with an impressive real estate portfolio and diverse "business interests", most of which involve lucrative contracts with county councils in the Giurgiu region.

Alexandru-Ioan Andrei
Party-hopper Alexandru-Ioan Andrei: In 2016 the message was "On Sunday vote for the PSD!". A few years later in 2020, it was "Vote for the PNL"...



In February 2019, Andrei announced that he was resigning from the PSD. For some months thereafter he operated as an independent deputy before (re-)joining the PNL in June 2019.

Together with Muscalu, he stood as a candidate for the PNL in the December 2020 parliamentary elections. Muscalu was unsuccessful but Andrei managed to get elected to the Chamber of Deputies for a further term - this time on the PNL ticket.

Alexandru-Ioan Andrei in PNL
Andrei turned up on the PNL ticket for Giurgiu together with Muscalu in December 2020.



The next "political appointee" at the head of OSIM was Ionuţ Barbu who started his political career with the youth branch of the Giurgiu PSD.

"Andrei left the OSIM in April 2016, apparently to focus on his political career and other interests."Barbu's political connections helped him to secure the top job at the OSIM at the tender age of 28 in December 2017 under the short-lived PSD-led administration of Mihai Tudose.

Tudose was forced to resign soon afterwards when his own party, the PSD, retracted its support for the government. Two years later in October 2019, the next PSD-led government headed by Viorica Dăncilă also collapsed and the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis designated Ludovic Orban from the PNL as Prime Minister.

The new PNL-led government under Orban decided to embark on a purge of PSD appointees in senior civil service positions. Barbu who had remained loyal to the PSD was one of the victims of this purge. [PDF]

Ionut Barbu
PSD loyalist Ionuţ Barbu was "purged" by the PNL-led government of Ludovic Orban in December 2019.



Mitrita Hahue, a longtime career civil servant at the OSIM, took over on an ad interim basis pending the appointment of a successor to Barbu.

"Mitrita Hahue, a longtime career civil servant at the OSIM, took over on an ad interim basis pending the appointment of a successor to Barbu."It was not until May of this year that a new Director-General was finally installed by the PNL-led government of Florin CîÈ›u. It's no surprise that the new incumbent is another "political appointee", this time from the PNL camp.

Marian Cătălin Burcescu is a native [PDF] of Drăgănești Vlașca, a commune in Teleorman County in the south of Romania beside Giurgiu County. He was 36 years old at the time of his appointment and, according to his curriculum vitae, he is a graduate of the Faculty of Cinematography [PDF] of the obscure "Media University of Bucharest".

In the local media, Burcescu has been described as a "political turncoat" - which seems to be a rather common species in contemporary Romania.

"It's no surprise that the new incumbent is another "political appointee", this time from the PNL camp."He began his political career with the Democratic Liberal Party (DLP), a liberal-conservative party which officially merged with the PNL in November 2014.

In 2016, he was elected as a county councillor on the PNL ticket. However, not long afterwards in June 2018 he resigned from the PNL and joined the smaller "social-liberal" party ALDE, a move which caused a lot of irritation and resentment among his former PNL colleagues.

Burcescu ran on the 2019 election ticket for ALDE where he stood as a candidate for the European Parliament. By a curious coincidence, Ionel Muscalu also appeared on same ALDE ticket as a candidate for the national parliament. Neither candidate was successful.

Marian Catalin Burcescu
Burcescu ran unsuccessfully on the ALDE ticket for the European Parliament in 2019.



Following the poor performance of ALDE in that election, both Muscalu and Burcescu appear to have decided that their political future would be more secure if they returned to the PNL fold, which they duly proceeded to do some time in 2020.

"Following the poor performance of ALDE in that election, both Muscalu and Burcescu appear to have decided that their political future would be more secure if they returned to the PNL fold, which they duly proceeded to do some time in 2020."From Burcescu's perspective, this turned out to have been a smart move because in May 2021 [PDF] he was awarded with the top job at the OSIM by the PNL-led government of Florin CîÈ›u.

His appointment was criticised, in particular due to his lack of appropriate academic qualifications and the fact that he had no prior experience in "IP"-related matters.

According to Romanian media reports, the Director-General of the OSIM is a senior civil service position which carries the same grade as a Secretary of State and comes with a gross monthly salary of 16,600 Romanian Leu - about € 3,350 at current exchange rates.

"His appointment was criticised, in particular due to his lack of appropriate academic qualifications and the fact that he had no prior experience in "IP"-related matters."It's not quite in the same league as the salary of an MEP or the head of an international "IP" Office like the EPO or EUIPO. Nevertheless, by Romanian standards, it's a respectable income which is no doubt supplemented by various perks such as allowances for duty travel, for example to the WIPO in Geneva, the EPO in Munich and the EUIPO in Alicante.

In the next part we will conclude our examination of the EPO's "Balkan League" states with some observations about the new delegates who have replaced the "old guard" that endorsed Battistelli's "Strike Regulations" in June 2013.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Reddit is Corporate Propaganda
To make matters worse, Reddit ousted many original moderators
Jeff Geerling Shocked to Discover Many Metrics in YouTube Are Fake (His Audience Turns Out to be Much Smaller)
Maybe self-host all videos, don't rely on Google's "FOMO" cheating (addiction based on false assumptions)
EPO Workers Point Out that the EPO is Destroying the Planet Under the Guise of "Hey Hi" (It Also Grants Many Invalid Patents Illegally
On 12 March and 16 June 2025, staff representation met with the administration in the Local Occupational Health, Safety and Ergonomics Committee (LOHSEC) in Munich
How the European Union (EU) Fell Out of Love With Free/Libre Software
Lots of bribery
 
Rumour: Second Wave of Microsoft Mass Layoffs in September to Commence Third Week of September
That basically answers questions like, "Any specific date or time of the month?"
If Your Machine Still Has "Secure Boot" Enabled, Then Microsoft Has a de Facto Kill Switch (Even If Your Machine Doesn't Have Windows and Never Had Windows)
It is not incorrect to call UEFI 'secure boot' a "kill switch"
Gemini Links 08/09/2025: Reality, ROOPHLOCH 2025, and Writing Another Gemini Client
Links for the day
Updating Firmware is Not the Solution But Only Additional Risk, Disable "Secure Boot" Today
firmware blobs are buggy, secret, impossible to audit, and barely tested
Microsoft Tim's DevClass (Part of The Register MS/Situation Publishing) is Full of Slop
Looking at many sites that are full of slop images is becoming an eye sore and hallmark of text too likely generated by LLMs or 'assisted' (tainted) by them
Microsoft Trying to Fake Demand for Slop. At What Cost?
That's a giant demotion and broken promises
Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant and Kryptonite/Garlic to Vampires
Transparency (sometimes described by words like "Sunlight" or "Truth") is paramount
The Register MS Uses Slop in Articles About Slop
we are fairly certain it's slop or CG based on other people's work
Visiting a Web Page or a Public URL Should be Safe, Predictable, and Benign
It's probably too late to "fix" the Web
The Register MS (Situation Publishing) is Paid to Spread Mindless Hype for the "Hey Hi" Ponzi Scheme and That's a Serious Problem
"Sponsored by Zoom."
Links 08/09/2025: Burger King Cracked, Cox v. Sony Analysed
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/09/2025: Socialist Computer Museum and GAFAM/ByteDance/TikTok-Dominated Net
Links for the day
Links 08/09/2025: Tim Crook Disappoints Apple Faithfuls and Zuckerberg Lies (Financial Fraud) for Cheeto King
Links for the day
Turn Off Microsoft's Restricted Boot ("Secure Boot")
We're still running a series on this issue
Social Control Media Sites Have Become Bot Farms (Not Limited to LLMs and Automation)
linkedin.com was nothing but trouble and losses for Microsoft
Deep in Debt With the Magnitude of Losses Quickly Growing, Microsoft "Open" "Hey Hi" Now Uses Broadcom for Vapourware, Pretending It'll Do OK Next Year
At some stage it'll collapse
You Can Tell Microsoft is in Trouble When Its Own Fans and Staff Blast it
"Microsoft sinks billions into chasing artificial intelligence fads to hype up its share price."
Multiple Undersea Cable Cuts and We're Still OK
Microsoft customers experience problems
Lawyers Who Think They Are Online Assassins Don't Deserve a Licence to Operate
they've become a laughing stock in their "sector"
Microsoft Windows Fell to 3.9% "Market Share" in Bahamas
Based on statCounter
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 07, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 07, 2025
Gemini Links 07/09/2025: Scanner, Slop, and Chadobear
Links for the day
The UEFI 9/11 is 3 Days Away
Nobody denies that bad things will happen
Google Versus Journalism
Google played a big role in the demise of news sites
Gemini Links 07/09/2025: Advertising, Decentralized Archival, and Outsourcing to Bezos
Links for the day
Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Has Almost Gone Down to Zero, Nearly Totally Extinct in Geminispace, the Few Capsules Still Using It Are Spam/Dead/Stagnant
This represents another decrease for Let's Encrypt; the last decrease was last week
Not Much Left in News Cycles
To be very clear, this does not describe "Linux" anything; it's true in just about every facet of news, except the paid-for fake "journalism" about "hey hi" (sites getting paid explicitly to maintain or rekindle hype)
Trying to Silence Techrights Was a Huge Mistake
Peter Thiel attacked a publisher for asserting, correctly, that he was gay. Now everyone knows it.
Throwing Away "Old" Computers (Mozilla and Other Climate Deniers)
Mozilla is not leftist
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VIII - Denial of Service and Selling Us WSL (Windows) Instead of "Risky" (Prone by Breakage by Microsoft) GNU/Linux
Restricted Boot (so-called 'SecureBoot') does not improve security. It is nothing but trouble. It's meant to trouble non-Windows users. In dual-boot setups, SecureBoot is a recipe for disaster because Microsoft keeps erasing or tampering with the boot sector, to paraphrase an associate
Slop is Extremely Rare in Geminispace, Slop Images Are Unheard Of (Despite Images Being Supported)
As long as Geminispace grows in terms of domains it's safe to predict the protocol will still be used in 2029 and hence Geminispace will turn 10
Links 07/09/2025: Robodebt Class Action, Fines, and Copyright Settlement
Links for the day
Links 07/09/2025: Yle Impersonated in Social Control Media, Boat-Attacking Orcas, Midjourney Sued Again
Links for the day
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Linux Journal, and the Serial Slopper
Google won't tackle the issue because Google participates not only in relaying slop but also in generating lots of it
Links 07/09/2025: Google Fines in EU and "Your Internet Access Is at Risk"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/09/2025: Little Brother and Corporate Theatre
Links for the day
Links 07/09/2025: More Harms of Slop and Anthropic's Nightmare Scenario (Huge Legal Liabilities for Slop)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 06, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 06, 2025
Microsoft Sites Now Talking About September's Mass Layoffs at Microsoft
It's noteworthy that even Microsoft's MSN now covers the latest revelations about mass layoffs
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: SpellBinding Moving and "The Cloud" Ridiculed
Links for the day
Slopwatch: On "the Apology Industry", Chatbots (Punchbag for Customers), and Fake Articles About "Linux"
"news reporting priorities changed"
Links 06/09/2025: "Covid Incidence on the Rise" and Many Attacks on the Press Worldwide
Links for the day
The Register Bill
The Register MS - putting the "MS" in your centre of the universe
Analogies for "Memory Safety" in Rust
Don't worry, it's Rust! It can do anything!
Nobody Denies That SecureBoot Will Cause Problems After September 11
Not even Microsoft
Gemini Links 06/09/2025: Infinite Scrolling and Posting from Emacs
Links for the day
Links 06/09/2025: GitHub Meltdown Over Slop, "U.S. Jury Says Google Should Pay $425 Million in Privacy Lawsuit"
Links for the day
Despite Its Severe Financial Problems Gnome Foundation Inc Paid Rosanna Yuen Over 100,000 Dollars Last Year
maybe relocation should be considered
The "Left" and the Right"
It poisons everything
Mozilla and Rust Are Not Leftists
they're part of the mass consumerism machine
Disposable to Microsoft
There is an extensive set of people who got used by Microsoft, only to be thrown away a month later or a year later or a decade later
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VII - This Coming Week Many PCs Will Refuse to Boot "Linux" (Because of Microsoft's Expired Certificate)
The real solution is, disable "secure boot" or "SecureBoot" while it's still possible. [...] Just like submarine patents, a lot of this problem was "hibernating" for a while
The Thing Nobody in Red Hat Wants to Talk About Openly
There is a real sentiment or worry among Red Hatters, Europeans and Americans in particulars (because of higher salary expectations)
Slopwatch: Small Parade of Fake News About "Linux" and Scams Borrowing the Name (or Word) "Linux"
In practice, LLMs are a risk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 05, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 05, 2025