European Patent Office (EPO) Series: A Tale of Two Antónios - On the Campaign Trail in Brussels
Previously: European Patent Office (EPO) Series: A Tale of Two Antónios
Part 1
On 3rd February 2026 a meeting took place in Brussels between the President of the European Council, António Costa, and the President of the European Patent Office, António Campinos. We take a closer look behind the scenes and examine how this meeting is most likely connected to Campinos' efforts to secure his reappointment for a third term.
Some time ago an observant reader spotted a press release from the European Council containing the official schedule of the President of the European Council, António Costa.
According to this document, a meeting was scheduled to take place in Brussels between Costa and the President of the European Patent Office, António Campinos on 3rd February 2026 at 15:00.
European Council Press Release 73/26 of 30 January 2026 showing the scheduled meeting between the European Council President and the EPO President on 3 February 2026.
The official website of the European Council confirms that the meeting took place as scheduled. However, it doesn't provide any concrete information about the meeting beyond the following minimalistic statement:
"António COSTA, President of the European Council, meets António CAMPINOS, President of the European Patent Office, on 3rd February 2026 in Brussels."
Nevertheless, the European Council website includes a number of photographs and a video clip which shows Costa greeting the EPO delegation. This material enables us to identify the members of the EPO President's entourage and we plan to take a closer look at these individuals in due course.
A report about the meeting was published on the EPO's official website in the form of a puff piece entitled "EPO and European Council presidents align on future of European innovation".
According to the EPO puff piece, the purpose of the meeting was to enable the presidents of the EPO and the European Council to "align on the future of European innovation" and to discuss "how to further strengthen support for innovation in Europe". A key focus of the meeting was "the pivotal role of the Unitary Patent system".
But who seriously expects anyone to believe that Campinos made the effort to travel all the way to Brussels to meet with Costa just for the sake of shooting the crap about "innovation in Europe" and "the pivotal role of the Unitary Patent system"?
As we already mentioned in the introduction to this series, Campinos is currently focused on his own very personal CRAP shoot at the EPO. It's an entirely plausible line of speculation that he took advantage of his recent journey to Brussels to showcase his ambitions for reappointment and to lobby the European Council President António Costa for his support.
In the upcoming parts we will provide an overview of the political career of António Costa and explain why his support could be of great significance for António Campinos in the latter's efforts to secure reappointment as President of the EPO. █
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* As noted this morning, it's very important to not let the crooked EPO management conflate or confuse innovation with patents. Because in practice most patents impede innovation.