European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Cutting Ribbons in Sintra While the EPO Burns
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Part 25
From left to right: President of INPI Portugal’s Directive Council, Ana Bandeira; Major General Paulo Costa, Commander of the Air Force Academy; Assistant Secretary of State for Justice, Gonçalo da Cunha Pires; Director of the Air Museum, Colonel Carlos Mouta Raposo; EPO President António Campinos; and Vice-President of the Portuguese Firefighters’ League, Eduardo Correia.
Soon after the European Patent Network junket in Split had come to a close, EPO President António Campinos found himself on another mission of vital strategic significance – for his reappointment campaign at least, if not for the Office over which he presides.
This time Campinos was heading back to his "home country" Portugal for an event organised in collaboration with the Portuguese Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
As reported in an earlier part of this series, the EPO President was spotted "lobbying in Lisbon" in February when he met with the Portuguese Justice Minister. He also turned up at a World Intellectual Property Day event in the Portuguese capital on 30th April 2026.
This time the destination was not Lisbon itself but rather Sintra, a town on the Portuguese Riviera. The event which brought the EPO President back to his home country was the ceremonial opening of the EPO’s Technology vs Fire exhibition on 15th May 2026.
The exhibition is intended to show how technology is used to support fire prevention, detection, response and recovery and it is a kind of travelling roadshow intended to promote EPO "visibility" in the organisation's member states. It seems to have been a PR stunt dreamed up by the former EPO press spokesperson Luis Berenguer Giménez when he was in charge of the EPO's communications department (before the 2025 Oktoberfest "cocaine bust" led to him being removed from public view).
The Technology vs Fire exhibition made its debut in Athens back in March 2024 and in April 2024 it travelled to Slovenia.
It is interesting to note that when the exhibition opened in Slovenia in April 2024, the ceremony was able to proceed without requiring the personal attendance of the EPO's highest office-holder. On that occasion the EPO was represented by a humble patent examiner by the name of Gregor Zupančič.
No EPO President in sight at the opening of the Technology vs Fire exhibition in Slovenia in April 2024. From left to right: State Secretary Dejan Židan, EPO Examiner Gregor Zupančič, SIPO Director Karin Žvokelj, Mayor of Sežana Andrej Sila.
But things are different in 2026 as the EPO President's campaign for reappointment enters a critical phase.
Apparently this time the opening of the exhibition in the President's home country was sufficiently important to warrant his presence in person. Unfortunately, the Portuguese Justice Minister Rita Alarcão Júdice didn't manage to fit the event into her schedule. Only her deputy, the Assistant Secretary of State for Justice Gonçalo da Cunha Pires, turned up accompanied by the head of the Portuguese IPO (INPI) Ana Bandeira.
We recall that the Portuguese INPI director Ana Bandeira had been present at the European Patent Network love-in at Split a few days earlier where she participated in a photo-op with EPO President Campinos along with fellow Administrative Council delegates Simona Marzetti (Italy) and Ewa Skrzydło-Tefelska (Poland).
Ana Bandeira (right) posing for a photo-op with Campinos, together with Simona Marzetti (Italy) and Ewa Skrzydło-Tefelska (Poland) in Split on 11th May 2026, just a few days before the ceremonial opening of the EPO's firefighting exhibition in Sintra.
The irony of the situation will be apparent to observers of EPO affairs.
As social conflict continues to smoulder across the EPO's principal "production sites", the President has chosen to be photographed at an exhibition dedicated to extinguishing a different type of fire – several thousand kilometres away from the organisation's own premises and at a safe remove from his increasingly disgruntled staff.
Like the Roman Emperor Nero, Campinos fiddles in Sintra while the EPO burns.
In the next part we will report on the EPO President's mission to one of the EPO's micro-states, the Most Serene Republic of San Marino. █