European Patent Office (EPO) Series: A Consummate Master of the "Rigged Game"
Previous Parts:
Part 32
Like his predecessor and mentor Benoît Battistelli, António Campinos is an old hand at the Machiavellian political scheming which seems to infest the upper echelons of European IP regulatory authorities. His track record shows him to be a consummate master of the "rigged game".
Like his predecessor and mentor Benoît Battistelli, António Campinos is an old hand at the Machiavellian political scheming which seems to infest the upper echelons of European "IP" regulatory authorities. Indeed, some would claim that his skills in this regard surpass those of his French-Corsican mentor.
It's worth recalling here that Battistelli had to fight tooth and nail to get elected as President of the EPO in 2010. On that occasion there were three other candidates in the race – namely, Jesper Kongstad (Denmark), Roland Grossenbacher (Switzerland) and Susanne Sivborg (Sweden) – and the successful candidate required a three-quarters majority. With 35 member states at the time, this meant getting at least 27 votes.
It took six months, four meetings of the Administrative Council during the last quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010 (including one extraordinary meeting in February 2010) and twenty rounds of voting before Battistelli finally emerged as the victor.
When things kicked off in June 2009, Battistelli was the chairman of the Administrative Council and Kongstad was the deputy chair. Initially Battistelli wanted to remain in his position as Council chairman which would have meant that he would have presided over a selection procedure where he was also standing as a candidate.
Quite understandably this triggered objections from some delegations and in June 2009 Battistelli and Kongstad (who had also announced his interest in standing for election) were forced to step down from their respective Administrative Council roles with Alberto Casado Cerviño, the head of the Spanish delegation and a close ally of Battistelli, being appointed as ad interim chairman to supervise the procedure.
Battistelli tried to undermine candidacy of his main "alpha-male" rival, Roland Grossenbacher, by arguing that because he came from a non-EU state he was not an appropriate choice to head the EPO at a time when it was preparing for the adoption of the EU-centric Unitary Patent regime and the associated Unified Patent Court Agreement.
But these scare tactics against the Swiss candidate didn't work as intended. As a matter of fact, by October 2009, Grossenbacher had reportedly moved into the "pole position" after Battistelli and Kongstad had issued a "joint declaration" which was not viewed favourably by many of the delegations.
Source: IAM
But Battistelli was far from finished. He still had a few tricks up his sleeve which enabled him to outmanoeuvre his Swiss rival.
With the assistance of the notoriously corrupt head of the Finnish Patent Office, Martti Enäjärvi, he launched his "Baltic Crusade" to secure the votes of the Baltic states. The head of the Portuguese delegation – none other than António Campinos himself – also participated in this "mission" and accompanied Battistelli during his visit to Estonia in January 2010.
At the same time, Battistelli persuaded Kongstad to withdraw from the race and got Denmark to publicly endorse his (i.e. Battistelli's) candidacy. Kongstad was then allowed to resume his position as deputy (and now acting) chair of the Council thereby enabling him to preside over the remainder of the procedure which took place during an extraordinary Council meeting held on 2nd and 3rd February 2010 and the regular quarterly meeting held on 1st March 2010.
Source: Battistelli-Kongstad Pact
And the rest, as they say, is history...
Source: MIP
Battistelli finally secured the required three-quarters majority at the 122nd Administrative Council meeting held on 1st March 2010 but getting there was a tough slog involving a lot of behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing.
In comparison to his mentor Battistelli, António Campinos had a much smoother ride when he secured his appointment as President of the Alicante-based EU trademark agency OHIM in 2010.
The full story behind that appointment has never really been told until now. It is necessary to read between the lines of the contemporaneous reports and join the dots in order to fully appreciate the masterstroke which Campinos managed to pull off on that occasion.
The short version here is that the Management Board of the OHIM chaired by António Campinos met on 12th and 13th April 2010 to draw up a shortlist of candidates to be forwarded to the Council of the European Union for decision. After deliberation and one round of eliminatory votes the Management Board drew up a list with a single name on it.
That name was none other than … wait for it … António Campinos!
Extract from the official OHIM document summarising the decisions taken by the Administrative Board during its 39th Meeting which took place in Alicante on 12th and 13th April 2010.
Source: OHIM
Not even his mentor Battistelli had managed to pull off such an impressive tour de force.
As we saw above, when the French-Corsican despot tried to preside over the procedure to select a new EPO President he was forced to step down as Council chairman and let an interim chairman take over after which he had to submit to a protracted competitive selection process against three rival candidates.
It's worth recalling that at the time of Battistelli's election, Campinos was the Portuguese delegate on the EPO's Administrative Council. It is possible that he may have drawn some lessons from the experience of the long-drawn-out procedure at the EPO which, in the words of IPKat, made the Administrative Council look "increasingly ridiculous".
In any event, when it subsequently came to securing his own appointment as President of the OHIM, Campinos showed that he was a consummate master of the "rigged game" and that his skills in this regard surpassed those of his mentor Battistelli.
In the next part we will take a closer look at this audacious masterstroke of the "Portuguese Pretender" as we explore the finer details of the trick with the "single-candidate shortlist". █