Series parts:

1. The EPO's Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part I: Let the Sunshine In!
2. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part II: A “Unanimous” Endorsement?
3. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part III: Three Missing Votes
4. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IV: The Founding States
5. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part V: Germany Says “Ja”
6. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VI: A Distinct Lack of Dutch Courage
7. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VII: Luxembourgish Laxity
8. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VIII: Perfidious Albion and Pusillanimous Hibernia
9. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IX: More Holes Than Swiss Cheese
10. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part X: Introducing the Controversial Christian Bock
11. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XI: “General Bock” - Battistelli's Swiss Apprentice?
12. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XII: The French Connection
13. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XIII: Battistelli's Iberian Facilitators - Spain
14. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XIV: Battistelli's Iberian Facilitators - Portugal
15. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XV: Et Tu Felix Austria…
16. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVI: The Demise of the Austrian Double-Dipper
17. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVII: The Non-Monolithic Nordic Bloc
18. The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVIII: Helsinki's Accord
19. YOU ARE HERE ☞ The Baltic States

The delegates from the Batlic states in June 2013.
Top: Matti Päts (EE), Guntis Ramāns (LV); bottom: Rimvydas Naujokas (LT)

Summary: How unlawful EPO rules were unsurprisingly supported by Benoît Battistelli's friends in Baltic states; António Campinos maintained those same unlawful rules and Baltic connections, in effect liaising with offices known for their corruption (convicted officials, too; they did not have diplomatic immunity, unlike Battistelli and Campinos)

The "capture" of the Baltic states by Battistelli in 2010 has already been dealt with extensively in an earlier series in which it was explained how his Finnish "facilitator" Martti Enäjärvi assisted him in pursuing his "Baltic Crusade" in 2010.

At the 136^th meeting of the Administrative Council in June 2013, the heads of delegation for the Baltic states were as follows:

● Estonia: Matti Päts, Director General, Estonian Patent Office; ● Lithuania: Rimvydas Naujokas, Director General, State Patent Bureau of Lithuania; ● Latvia: Guntis Ramāns, Acting Director, Latvian Patent Office.

Left: Battistelli with the Estonian delegate Matti Päts (March 2012).
Right: Battistelli with the Lithuanian delegate, Rimvydas Naujokas (April 2011).

In the earlier series, it was explained how, following his election as EPO President, Battistelli carefully cultivated the good-will of his Baltic fiefdoms with the assistance of his faithful INPI crony, the EPO “bagman” François-Régis Hannart.

As readers of Techrights will recall, Hannart was the Principal Director responsible for coordinating the distribution of Battistell’s “largesse” to his vassal states in return for their votes on the Administrative Council.

Battistelli and his cooperation fund “bagman” Hannart with the Chairman of the Latvian Parliament’s Education, Culture and Science Committee, Jānis Vucāns (June 2015).

It therefore comes as no surprise that the representatives of the "captured" Baltic states played their part in the rubber-stamping of Battistelli's "Strike Regulations" in June 2013.

"It remains to be seen whether they will continue to play the role of "captured delegates", meekly subservient to Battistelli's successor Campinos, or whether they will manage to take a principled stand for justice and the rule of law at the EPO."Since then, the "old guard" of Soviet-era dinosaurs in charge of the national "IP" offices of these states has been put out to grass.

The delegations on the EPO's Administrative Council are now headed by some fresh faces:

● Estonia: Margus Viher, Director General, Estonian Patent Office; ● Lithuania: Lina Mickienė, Deputy Director, State Patent Bureau of Lithuania; ● Latvia: Līga Lārmane, Deputy Director, Latvian Patent Office.

It's not clear to what extent the new generation of representatives from the Baltic states are even aware of the damage caused by the actions of their predecessors in supporting Battistelli's "reign of terror" at the EPO.

It remains to be seen whether they will continue to play the role of "captured delegates", meekly subservient to Battistelli's successor Campinos, or whether they will manage to take a principled stand for justice and the rule of law at the EPO.

Do the current representatives from the Baltic states realise the damage caused by their predecessors who gave blind support to Battistelli's "reign of terror" at the EPO? If yes, what do they intend to do about it? From l. to r.: Margus Viher (EE), Lina Mickienė (LT), Līga Lārmane (LV).

In the next part we will turn our attention to the representatives of another significant regional bloc of EPO member states, namely the Visegrád Group, comprising the Central and Eastern European states of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. ⬆