Background:

• The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXXVII: Stubbornly Independent Slovenia
• The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXXVIII: Ensnared in the Tentacles of the SAZAS Octopus
• The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXXIX: On the Slippery Slope to Capture

Benoît Battistelli with Vojko Toman in Ljubljana

Summary: The EPO-friendly Vojko Toman, who also protected António Campinos, was the subject of recent media coverage in Slovenia

An article published by Slovenian media in October of this year [PDF] confirms that during Vojko Toman's term of office as head of the national "IP" Office (URSIL) no action was taken to deal with issues relating to "collective management organisations" in the copyright sector.

Just a word of caution about the publisher of this article. Nova24TV is a Slovenian news media conglomerate closely associated with the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), generally regarded as a "right-wing populist" party.

According to Wikipedia, Nova24TV has been financially supported by Hungarian businessmen close to Viktor Orbán.

"The relevance of the article to the recent coverage about Slovenia is that it shows that during his time at the head of the URSIL between September 2015 and September 2021, Vojko Toman failed to take any action to tackle the known problems relating to copyright CMOs."However, no other Slovenian media seems to be currently covering these issues.

Leaving aside any reservations that might exist about the publisher, the article is objective in tone and presents facts and figures that come from reliable non-partisan sources such as www.edebiti.si and www.erar.si.

The relevance of the article to the recent coverage about Slovenia is that it shows that during his time at the head of the URSIL between September 2015 and September 2021, Vojko Toman failed to take any action to tackle the known problems relating to copyright CMOs.

It's worth recalling that Toman was initially appointed as head of the URSIL on a temporary ad interim basis in September 2015 until 30 March 2016.

"With hindsight, it seems clear that Toman was installed as a "safe pair of hands" who could be trusted not to "rock the boat"."A call for candidates for the position of URSIL director was published in February 2016 [PDF] and the next director should have been appointed in March. It seems that there weren't any suitable candidates because no appointment was made in March.

Toman's ad interim posting was prolonged and a fresh call for candidates was issued in June 2016 [PDF]. Once again, it seems that there weren't any suitable candidates.

So Toman ended up being awarded the position for a five-year term in September 2016.

With hindsight, it seems clear that Toman was installed as a "safe pair of hands" who could be trusted not to "rock the boat". ⬆