Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Darker Past of the Next President of the EPO - Part II: António Campinos at Banco Caixa Geral de Depósitos

Goldesel



Summary: A look at the largely-hidden banking career of the next President of the EPO and the career of the person who competed with him for this position

THE EPO will have a new President in just over 8 months from now. The 'Club Med' series was intended to help readers familiarise themselves with this man and today we continue the latest series, which is to some degree based on the official Campinos CV in Spanish. [PDF]



"First Angola, now Brazil. Any other former Portuguese colonies left in the pipeline?"In part 1 (published last night) we presented a very short introduction. Last night we also saw this new article about further rushed examination, as explained André Venturini from DANIEL Legal & IP Strategy, for a former Portuguese colony, this time Brazil. To quote: "A Rule setting forth the acceptability requirements of this PPH program is yet to be published, but the BRPTO has already anticipated that this will be a pilot program with a limit of 300 applications per year. Moreover, only those patent applications related to medical devices and general chemistry would be allowed to participate."

First Angola, now Brazil. Any other former Portuguese colonies left in the pipeline? Either way, let's proceed with part 2.




The Banco Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), which was established in Lisbon in 1876, is a Portuguese state-owned banking corporation, and the second largest bank in Portugal.

CGD is Portugal's largest public sector banking corporation and the largest Portuguese financial group with presence in 23 countries spanning four continents through branches, representative offices or direct equity interests in local financial institutions. As might be expected it is heavily involved in former Portuguese colonies.

"For some reason, Mr. Campinos does not appear to be particularly keen to advertise his previous career in banking."During the time of the Angola civil war it appears to have been heavily involved in the financing of arms sales from Russia to Angola.

"The "Angolagate" Trial" by Paula Roque, an article from November 10th 2008, says: "The investigation revealed, amongst other things, how more than $21 million worth of illicit arms sales from Russia to Angola were transferred through Portuguese banks, in particular the state-run Caixa Geral de Depositos, and Banco Comercial Portugues."

In more recent years CGD has been named in connection with financial shenanigans in Angola and Portugal involving the Dos Santos clan. See "Investigation into Isabel dos Santos’ Portuguese investments" (16th of October, 2015) and "President Dos Santos Illegally Inflates Daughter's Fortune" (7th of December, 2015).

For some reason, Mr. Campinos does not appear to be particularly keen to advertise his previous career in banking. His carefully preened public image these days is that of an expert in IP matters, but his curriculum vitae indicates that his expertise in these matters is limited to the area of trademarks. He does not appear to have any particular experience in the area of patents.

Of course none of this disqualifies him as a potential President of the EPO, but it is interesting to note that the choir of cheerleaders supporting him were keen to stress his IP expertise and his experience of running an international organisation supposedly in contrast to his only competitor, the ICC judge Mr. Tarfusser.

"Maybe Tarfusser's impressive professional record and his experience as a public prosecutor made some members of the EPO's Administrative Council nervous that he might take his new job at the EPO too seriously and start asking awkward questions or poking his nose into things that are supposed to remain closed secrets."This seems rather one-sided and unfair to Tarfusser who served at a senior level in the ICC which is an international organisation with 124 member states compared to the 38 member states of the EPO.

It is also known that during his time as Chief State Attorney in Bozen/Bolzano the working practices of the Office of the State Attorney in South Tyrol were radically restructured. In fact the organisational model developed under his guidance is now considered as the standard for the entire justice administration system throughout Italy. So Tarfusser was not just a "courtroom judge" lacking experience in managerial and administrative matters.

Throughout his career he appears to have been heavily involved in the managerial aspects of administrative and judicial bodies.

Tarfusser’s work as Public Prosecutor included a number of investigations and trials encompassing crimes against individuals; crimes against the state, including terrorism; crimes against public administration such as extortion and corruption; trafficking; smuggling and European Union fraud; and organised crime such as money laundering.

During his career he has lectured at a number of law faculties within Italy and has been appointed to a number of rogatory commissions in Europe, Belarus and the Dominican Republic.

In 2016 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by Edge Hill University’s Department of Law and can be seen speaking on video here.

"Campinos seems to have been hand-picked by the Administrative Council as a "safe pair of hands" and as part of a carefully crafted plan to ensure that as much dirt as possible from the Battistelli era at the EPO is safely swept under the carpet and kept away from the prying eyes of public scrutiny."Maybe Tarfusser's impressive professional record and his experience as a public prosecutor made some members of the EPO's Administrative Council nervous that he might take his new job at the EPO too seriously and start asking awkward questions or poking his nose into things that are supposed to remain closed secrets.

Campinos on the other hand is a long-standing member of the same "golden circle" as Battistelli composed of the directors of national IP Offices who see the EPO purely in terms of a money-making machine like the "gold-ass" from the tale of the Brothers Grimm and who do not seem to be particularly concerned with the wider societal aspects of patents.

Although he must ultimately be judged by his actions when he takes up the job as EPO President next year, Campinos gives the impression of being a typical EU Technocrat from much the same mould as Battistelli. Campinos seems to have been hand-picked by the Administrative Council as a "safe pair of hands" and as part of a carefully crafted plan to ensure that as much dirt as possible from the Battistelli era at the EPO is safely swept under the carpet and kept away from the prying eyes of public scrutiny.

Recent Techrights' Posts

SoylentNews Grows Up, Registers as a Business, Site Traffic Reportedly Grows
More people realise that social control media may in fact be a passing fad
 
Garden Season Starts Today
Outdoor time, officially...
More Information About Public Talks That Richard Stallman Gave This Week in Europe
Two talks in Switzerland
Engadget is Still a Spamfarm, It's Just an Amazon Catalogue (SPAM/SEO), a Sea of Junk Disguised as "Articles" With Few 'Fillers' (Real Articles) in Between
Engadget writes for bots now, not for humans
Richard Stallman's Talks in Switzerland This Week
We need to put an end to 'cancer culture'; it's trying to kill people and it is even swatting people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 28, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, March 28, 2024
[Meme] EPO's New Ways of Working (NWoW), a.k.a. You Don't Even Get a Desk at Work and Cannot be Near Known Colleagues
Seems more like union-busting (divide and rule)
Hiding Microsoft's Culpability in Security Breaches and Other Major Blunders (in the United Kingdom, This May Mean You Can't Get Food)
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is vast
Giving back to the community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 28/03/2024: Sega, Nintendo, and Bell Layoffs
Links for the day
Open letter to the ACM regarding Codes of Conduct impersonating the Code of Ethics
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries