Bonum Certa Men Certa

Virtual Injustice -- Part 6: Best Buddies With António

Previously in the series:

  1. Virtual Injustice -- Part 1: António's Increasingly Wonky Legal Fudge Factory
  2. Virtual Injustice -- Part 2: The ViCo Oral Proceedings of 28 May 2021
  3. Virtual Injustice -- Part 3: All the President's Men…
  4. Virtual Injustice -- Part 4: Mihály Ficsor, the EPO's Hungarian “Fixer”
  5. Virtual Injustice -- Part 5: Benoît's “Friends” in Budapest


Campinos and Ficsor
Ficsor (left) and Campinos (right) at the opening of the UPC judges' training centre in Budapest (March 2014).



Summary: Benoît Battistelli, António Campinos, and the Hungarian link of the EPO

We have already mentioned that as deputy director of the HIPO between 2000 and 2016, Ficsor acted as the Hungarian representative on various international bodies dealing with IP matters.



In particular, following Hungary's ratification of the EPC in 2003 [PDF], he acted as a national delegate on the Administrative Council of the EPO. Between 1 July 2005 and 31 December 2010 he was chairman of the Administrative Council's Committee on Patent Law.

"Between 1 July 2005 and 31 December 2010 he was chairman of the Administrative Council's Committee on Patent Law."Similarly, following Hungary's accession to the EU in 2004, he sat on the Administrative Board of the OHIM/EUIPO in Alicante.

In January 2011 he was appointed to the position of Chairman of the Administrative Board. In that capacity he had close contact with the executive director of the OHIM/EUIPO – who was at that time none other than a certain António Serge de Pinho Campinos, who will be familiar to readers of Techrights as the current President of the European Patent Office.

"On that occasion, they took the field together to cut of the ribbon at the inauguration of a new € 40 million building."As might be expected, Ficsor and Campinos turn up together on a regular basis in photo-ops from that period.

For example, the 2014 Annual Report of the HIPO includes a photo of Campinos and Ficsor at the opening of the UPC judges' training centre in Budapest in March of that year.

Campinos and Ficsor in Hungary
Campinos and Ficsor in Budapest in March 2014 - Source: Annual Report of the HIPO. [PDF]



Later in the same year, Ficsor and Campinos were spotted together in Alicante at the celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the EU's trademark office, OHIM/EUIPO in November 2014.

On that occasion, they took the field together to cut of the ribbon at the inauguration of a new € 40 million building.

"In the next part, we shall see how Ficsor’s close connections with Campinos came in handy when he was looking for new employment opportunities after he left the Hungarian IPO in 2016."The photo-op shows Campinos and Ficsor accompanied by Anne Rejnhold Jørgensen from the Danish Patent and Trademark Office, a close associate of DKPTO director Kongstad, who was the Chair of the OHIM/EUIPO Budgetary Committee at the time in question.

Battistelli also be seen, lurking in the background on the right hand edge of the photo.

Battistelli, Campinos and Ficsor
Campinos (left) and Ficsor (right) at the inauguration of a new OHIM building in Alicante (November 2014).



In the next part, we shall see how Ficsor's close connections with Campinos came in handy when he was looking for new employment opportunities after he left the Hungarian IPO in 2016.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
 
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
Downlplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025