Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part IX – António's Faithful Acolyte in Alicante

Series index:

  1. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part I – More Captured Delegates?
  2. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part II – Old Wine in New Bottles...
  3. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part III – Introducing the Finnish “Facilitator”
  4. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part IV – Martti Enäjärvi and His “Good Brother” Networks
  5. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part V – A Man With a Conviction...
  6. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part VI – "A Good Friend of Estonia and a Steady Cooperation Partner”
  7. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part VII – A Self-Appointed “Select Committee”
  8. EPO Exposé: The Besieged Baltic States – Part VIII – Pulling for the Portuguese Pretender?
  9. You are here ☞ António's Faithful Acolyte in Alicante


Joao Negrao
Mr. João Negrão [PDF] followed his master António Campinos to Alicante in 2010 where he soon became Director of International Cooperation and Legal Affairs at the EU trademark agency.



Summary: "Of course Campinos could have tried to switch his own nationality to "French" but that wouldn't have gone down well either because he had been elected as Benoît Battistelli's successor on the premise that he was "Portuguese"."

Upon taking up his appointment as Executive Director of the EU trademark agency OHIM/EUIPO in October 2010, Campinos was immediately joined in Alicante by his faithful acolyte, João Negrão [PDF], who became his chef-de-cabinet.



"Between 2010 and 2018, Negrão followed his master like Mary's little lamb."About a year or so later Negrão became Director of the International Cooperation and Legal Affairs Department of the trademark agency.

Between 2010 and 2018, Negrão followed his master like Mary's little lamb.

Wherever Campinos popped up on an OHIM "duty mission", Negrão was usually to be seen in close proximity.

For example, the pair were spotted together in Estonia in October 2015 and in Iceland in May 2016 at a shindig to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Icelandic Patent Office.

António Campinos in Estonia
Campinos and Negrão in Estonia in October 2015.



António Campinos and Joao Negrao in Iceland
Campinos and Negrão joined Borghildur Erlingsdótti and her friends in Reykjavík in May 2016 for a shindig to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Icelandic Patent Office.



"Despite their close - almost symbiotic - working relationship over the years, Negrão didn't end up following Campinos to Munich in July 2018."They also turned up together in Monaco in March 2017 for a meeting with Monegasque officials "to consider areas of potential cooperation between EUIPO and the National Intellectual Property Office of Monaco" and in San Marino in May 2017 to sign a bilateral "Memorandum of Understanding".

António Campinos and Joao Negrao in Monaco
Campinos and Negrão in Monaco in March 2017.



Despite their close - almost symbiotic - working relationship over the years, Negrão didn't end up following Campinos to Munich in July 2018.

Campinos would probably have liked to bring his faithful and long-serving acolyte with him. However, under the unwritten rules governing senior EPO appointments it would have been impossible to appoint a Vice-President having the same nationality as the President.

"Campinos would probably have liked to bring his faithful and long-serving acolyte with him."Of course Campinos could have tried to switch his own nationality to "French" but that wouldn't have gone down well either because he had been elected as Benoît Battistelli's successor on the premise that he was "Portuguese".

"Of course Campinos could have tried to switch his own nationality to "French" but that wouldn't have gone down well either because he had been elected as Benoît Battistelli's successor on the premise that he was "Portuguese"."Because there was no realistic chance of a job to match his expectations in Munich, Negrão chose to remain in Alicante.

With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, opportunities for "duty travel" have become more limited and nowadays most business is conducted using videoconferencing.

"But even if Negrão's relationship with his new boss Christian Archambeau is a bit more "socially distanced" and things seem less cosy than they were under Campinos, this hasn't hampered his career progression."For example on 13 January 2021, Negrão took part in a ViCo with the EU Director-General for Research and Innovation, Jean-Eric Paquet and on 15 February 2021, he participated in a "virtual meeting" with the Portuguese INPI.

But even if Negrão's relationship with his new boss Christian Archambeau is a bit more "socially distanced" and things seem less cosy than they were under Campinos, this hasn't hampered his career progression.

On the contrary, in November 2020 it was reported that Negrão had been elected as President of EUIPO's Boards of Appeal and he took up his new position on 1 April 2021.

"But since neither Battistelli nor Campinos took the "judicial independence" of the EPO Boards of Appeal seriously, Negrão is unlikely to be concerned about the supposedly inferior status of the Boards over which he presides."EUIPO's Boards of Appeal are only an administrative instance whose decisions are subject to judicial review by the Court of Justice of the EU. So they don't have quite the same status or "cachet" as the EPO's Boards of Appeal which are an independent judicial body - at least on paper.

But since neither Battistelli nor Campinos took the "judicial independence" of the EPO Boards of Appeal seriously, Negrão is unlikely to be concerned about the supposedly inferior status of the Boards over which he presides.

One advantage that the EUIPO Boards of Appeal have over those at the EPO is that they don't have to pretend to be a judicial instance or worry about the perception of independence.

That concludes our review of the circumstances surrounding the secretive meeting which took place at the Estonian Patent Office in January 2010 and its effects on the careers of some of those involved.

"EUIPO's Boards of Appeal are only an administrative instance whose decisions are subject to judicial review by the Court of Justice of the EU."It seems fair to say that this little conclave in Tallinn had a significant influence on the course of events over the following decade, both at the EPO and at the EUIPO.

Indeed, it would appear to have brought considerable benefits to some of the participants.

"...it would appear to have brought considerable benefits to some of the participants."In the next part we shall look at another event which was held in the same place a little over two years later in March 2012 and which drew the great and good of the "global IP community" to Tallinn, namely the official ceremony commemorating the 20th anniversary of the re-establishment of the Estonian Patent Office.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Richard Stallman Gives Public Talk at Technical University of Liberec, Czech Republic
"For programs that you could run, and for network services that could do your own computing, under what circumstances is it reasonable to trust them?"
Another Wave of Microsoft Layoffs Comes Shortly. Microsoft Propaganda Sites and Slopforms Powered by Microsoft LLMs Already Spew Out Face-Saving Nonsense.
Based on last month's leak, some very extensive layoffs are now imminent [...] Perhaps we can expect a lot of noise, some of it spewed out by bots, to distract from or belittle the impending mass layoffs
Ubuntu Becomes Microsoft GitHub, Based on Decision Made by British Army Officer
You're hopeless, Canonical
Windows and Microsoft Causing Serious Data Breaches, Media Rushes to Blame That on "Linux" Somehow
While selling us some rusty old propaganda about how moving to Microsoft GitHub (Rust) will improve security
Making Site Archives More Easily Accessible (Approaching 50,000 Blog Posts)
Efforts to censor us have always backfired badly
 
The European Patent Office (EPO) Has a Very Profound Corruption Issue, Far More Urgent an Issue Than Pronouns
a rather long document
Finland, Lithuania, and Latvia Fortify Their Digital Border With GNU/Linux
This month's data from statCounter is particularly interesting near the Baltic Sea
Today We Turn 18.5
The eighteenth "and a half" anniversary
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 06, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 06, 2025
Microsoft Finally Admits That XBox is ****
In this case, "enshittification" is an understatement
Slopwatch: Microsoft Slop, Anti-Linux Slop, and IBM Marketing Itself as a Slop Company
Microsoft-controlled LLM spewing out garbage about "Linux"
Links 06/05/2025: Microsoft's Assassination of Skype After Years of Failure, Slop Hallucinations Are Getting Worse
Links for the day
Links 06/05/2025: Changing Places and StarGrid for PalmOS
Links for the day
Weaponisation of For-Profit Dockets - Part II: Hiding Behind Lawyers and Barristers Who Lack Standards so as to Engage in Classic Corporate Extortion
They're trying to scare people and they misuse their licence to operate
Links 06/05/2025: LLMs/Chatbots Attract More Scrutiny (Getting Worse Over Time), PwC Has Many Layoffs
Links for the day
Thanks for listening. How can this Morse feed be further improved?
Right now any and all feedback on the audio would be helpful
statCounter: Bing's Market Share Lower Right Now Than It Was When LLM Hype Began (With "Bing Chat")
If anybody gains at Google's expense in search, it is BRICS' alternatives such as Yandex
Gemini Links 06/05/2025: Failure and Proxmox Cluster
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 05, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, May 05, 2025
Weaponisation of For-Profit Dockets - Part I: Hiding Behind Lawyers (or Guns for Hire) After Abusing Many People and Even Strangling Women While Microsoft Paid Salaries
This whole thing is very typical of the Microsoft and Bill Gates mindset
From EPO to "MAGA Regime": A Shift Away From Reality to Fake News and False Metrics
Disbelief in itself isn't a bad thing; but the problem is that people are taught to believe rich people in suits more than they believe others
Skype is Officially Dead Today and This is Why People Should Use Free Software Instead (Goodbye, Microsoft)
It's also a good reminder of why people should move to GNU/Linux
'Simple Articles' in MyGemini Just One of Many New 'Sites' in Geminispace
Geminispace has grown fast lately; it's turning 6 next month
Links 05/05/2025: TikTok Still a Romanian Woe/Foe, Signal Perils Showing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/05/2025: Debian and GNOME and a "Welcome to Simple Articles"
Links for the day
Links 05/05/2025: US Economy Shrinks, US Presidency Spreading Deepfakes
Links for the day
Links 05/05/2025: Breaches, Environment, and Conflicts
Links for the day
SUSE the Company Now Uses LLM Slop to 'Write' Its Blog, What Does That Tell Us About SUSE?
There are many giveaways
Richard Stallman is in Alicante Today to Give a Talk, Czech Republic in Two Days (Wednesday)
Of course he can deliver the talk in Spanish
Gemini Links 05/05/2025: XL Bullies and Luddites
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 04, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 04, 2025