European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Public Missions and Private Ambitions
Previous Parts:
Part 29
When João Negrão (right) appeared before the Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee of the European Parliament In June 2023 he was confronted by Danish MEP Karen Melchior (left) who questioned him about the "integrity" of his campaign for the position of EUIPO executive director. Over at the European Patent Office, his Portuguese compatriot António Campinos enjoys complete exemption from such public scrutiny.
This series opened with a report about a meeting between EPO President António Campinos and the President of the European Council António Costa which took place in Brussels on 3rd February 2026. We speculated that this meeting marked the start of the EPO President's campaign for reappointment.
In the most recent parts of the series our attention was focused on various "duty missions" to the EPO's member states that Campinos has undertaken since February 2026.
Campinos would undoubtedly do his best to pass off this flurry of missionary activity as part of the EPO's regular programme of institutional outreach and engagement with key "stakeholders" and attempt to justify the expenditure with the usual stock phrases about "advancing the organisation's objectives" and "strengthening international cooperation" and so on and so forth.
However, the frequency and timing of these missions give the distinct impression of a campaign-style tour designed to bolster the President's visibility in the organisation's member states, in particular among Administrative Council delegates and government officials whose support Campinos needs to be able to count on when it comes to a decision on his reappointment.
At a time when the question of leadership succession is under discussion at the EPO, it seems entirely legitimate to ask whether it is appropriate that activities which have the effect of enhancing the incumbent's personal standing should be financed from the organisation's budget.
This is not the first time that such questions have surfaced in connection with European organisations responsible for the administration of "Intellectual Property" rights.
To be more specific, back in 2023 the current executive director of EUIPO – the Alicante-based agency for administering EU trademarks (EUTMs) – became embroiled in a controversy which amongst other things involved allegations that he had improperly exploited "duty missions" for electioneering purposes.
The individual at the centre of that controversy was none other than João Negrão, the Portuguese compatriot and "faithful acolyte" of EPO President António Campinos.
Campinos and Negrão have close and long-standing professional connection which can be traced back to their time together at the Portuguese IPO, the Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial (INPI).
Negrão joined the INPI in 2001 where he was attached to the "international relations cabinet". This is the department of the INPI which manages "global IP cooperation", trade agreements, and foreign strategic partnerships and it is central to Portuguese diplomatic efforts at international organisations like the EPO and WIPO. Negrão became Head of Cabinet in 2004 and was appointed Director of International Relations and Promotion of Innovation in 2008. From the EPO's Official Journal of 2009, it can be seen that Campinos as head of the INPI's Directive Council and Negrão as the Director of International Relations represented Portugal on the EPO's Administrative Council.
The records of the EPO's Administrative Council confirm a long-standing professional connection between António Campinos and João Negrão which can be traced back to their time together at the Portuguese INPI.
Source: Composition of the EPO Administrative Council of the EPO (as of March 2009)
At that time Campinos also represented Portugal on the governing body of the EU trademark agency OHIM (now EUIPO). As a matter of fact, from 2008 onwards he chaired OHIM's Administrative Board until 2010 when he finally managed to hit the jackpot by obtaining an appointment as the agency's executive director.
Source: Composition of the OHIM Administrative Board (January 2008)
Like two peas in a pod: António Campinos and João Negrão attending a shindig in Reykjavik in 2016 hosted by Borghildur Erlingsdóttir to mark the 25th anniversary of the Icelandic IPO. Borghildur Erlingsdóttir is currently the deputy Chairperson of the EPO's Administrative Council.
Shortly after taking up office in Alicante in October 2010, Campinos was joined there by Negrão who initially served as his chef de cabinet before being appointed head of EUIPO's International Cooperation and Legal Affairs Department in July 2011.
In 2018, when Campinos moved to Munich to take up his new position as President of the European Patent Office, Negrão stayed behind in Alicante where he advanced to the position of President of the EUIPO Boards of Appeal in 2021.
When the position of EUIPO executive director became vacant in 2023, after the Management Board decided not to reappoint the incumbent Christian Archambeau for a second term, Negrão decided to enter the succession race along with two other candidates: Archambeau's deputy, Andrea di Carlo, and Etienne Sanz de Acedo, President of the International Trademark Association (INTA).
Although Negrão did not officially confirm his candidacy until February 2023, it becomes apparent from an article entitled "Intellectual property: the European agency out of control" published by the French investigative outlet Medipart in January 2024 that his campaign had already commenced behind the scenes in 2022 when the number of "duty missions" of the EUIPO Boards of Appeal "exploded in an unprecedented manner":
"With 198 missions, his department became by far the largest in terms of trips abroad, most often to national offices. By way of comparison, this same department only travelled 75 times in 2019 and 79 times in 2018."
On 27th June 2023, the three candidates in the running for the position of EUIPO director appeared before the Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee of the European Parliament.
On that occasion Danish Renew MEP Karen Melchior asked a question about the "integrity" of Negrão's campaign*. More specifically, Melchior asked Negrão how he had managed to separate and maintain the exercise of his functions as President of the Boards of Appeal from a campaign for the position of executive director which he seemed to have been conducting over the previous twelve months.
Negrão responded to Melchior's question as follows**:
"I can tell you that I am a candidate supported officially by the government of Portugal. The campaign is done by the government of Portugal, by the Portuguese authorities. I contribute to this campaign to the measure that I can. Normally online at a distance but sometimes also in person like I am doing here today. And I can tell you that when I contribute to this campaign I do it on my own time, at my own expenses [sic]. And also for you to know, today I am on holidays. So in fact I am giving from my own time to my campaign in this case. And I think that that answers the questions that I received."
The complete video of the JURI hearing of 27th June 2023 can be found here on the website of the European Parliament. Melchior's question to Negrão concerning the "integrity" of his campaign starts at around 15:35:20 and Negrão's answer to that question starts at around 15:42:39.
Negrão's evasive and self-serving response didn't really answer the question asked by Melchior. Indeed, as reported by Medipart, a complaint submitted to the EU Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) alleging serious managerial misconduct at EUIPO included claims to the effect that the numerous "duty missions" undertaken by Negrão during 2022 and 2023 were improperly exploited for electioneering purposes. As far as we are aware, that OLAF complaint is still under investigation.
As already mentioned in an earlier part of this series, Negrão's candidacy received strong support from his Portuguese compatriot Campinos which prompted the French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire to write an angry letter to Campinos accusing him of using an EPO-sponsored event in Lisbon in May 2023 to influence the EUIPO selection procedure.
Despite the French government's strong formal pushback, the lobbying momentum generated by Campinos and Negrão proved unstoppable. Negrão secured the majority of votes at the EUIPO Management Board meeting just days after the EPO's Lisbon junket and this placed him in the pole position on the shortlist of candidates forwarded to the European Council for decision. The European Council approved his appointment on 25th July 2023 and he officially began his term of office as executive director of EUIPO on 1st October 2023.
Sources: MIP article "Exclusive: EUIPO appeals chief enters race for top office job" and MIP article "Exclusive: João Negrão in pole position after EUIPO leadership vote"
Returning now to the present day and to current events at the EPO, it would be interesting to know whether Campinos can rely on his old amigo in Alicante for support as his own campaign for reappointment enters the critical phase during the second half of 2026.
In the absence of any concrete information we can only speculate about this. We don't know whether Negrão is in fact engaging in lobbying activity on behalf of Campinos behind the scenes, but it is an entirely plausible hypothesis which cannot be dismissed out of hand.
What we are able to state with confidence is that in the legal no-man's land of his EPOnian fiefdom Campinos does not have to worry about his reappointment campaign being subjected to any meaningful external scrutiny.
In the next part we will take a closer look at the EPO's "transparency gap" and explain how it facilitates the questionable use of public funds to further the private ambitions of the EPO President. █
_____
