European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Czech Mate: EPO Kingmaker or Merely a Pawn in the Game?
Previous Parts:
Part 28
António Campinos and his trusty "Czech mate" Josef Kratochvíl
in February 2020 on the occasion of
the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the
European Patent Office and the Administrative Council.
In the last part we reported on the EPO President's visit to Ljubljana on 2nd June 2026 where he attended the inauguration ceremony of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Patent Mediation and Arbitration Centre (PMAC) in Slovenia.
The very next day – on 3rd June 2026 – Campinos turned up in Prague for a meeting with the Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček and with representatives of the Czech IPO.
According to an EPO post on LinkedIn: "The discussions focused on strengthening Europe’s innovation ecosystem, supporting startups and SMEs and expanding access to intellectual property through initiatives such as the Unitary Patent system."
Campinos – accompanied by Josef Kratochvíl – meeting with Czech
Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček in Prague on
3rd June 2026.
It's worth mentioning here that the EPO President is a familiar face in IP circles in Prague and he is certainly no stranger to the Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček. For example, Campinos attended an event held in Prague in September 2019 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Czech IPO and took advantage of the occasion to pose for a photo-op with Havlíček.
Campinos posing for a photo-op with Czech Minister of Industry
and Trade Karel Havlíček in 2019.
Campinos also appeared as a speaker at a similar event held five years later in September 2024 to mark the Czech IPO's 105th anniversary.
Campinos speaking at an event to mark the 105th
anniversary of the Czech IPO in September 2024.
Techrights reported on the EPO President's visit to Prague in 2019 alleging that there was an ulterior motive behind it, namely to lobby Czech government officials about the Unified Patent Court project.
These allegations about UPC lobbying may well have some substance. The fact of the matter is that many people in the Czech Republic are extremely sceptical about the UPC due to thoroughly legitimate concerns about the risk of a negative impact on domestic Czech industry. It is generally recognised that Czech SMEs are at risk of attack via "IP lawfare" initiated by large multinational corporations.
The current situation is that the Czech Republic has signed up to the UPC Agreement but has deferred formal ratification indefinitely. What this means in plain English is that for the foreseeable future there is no prospect of the UPC Agreement entering into effect in the Czech Republic.
This has resulted in a situation in which UPC enthusiasts like Campinos are fond of conducting "missions" to the Czech Republic to lobby the local authorities in the hope of persuading them to proceed with the ratification process.
The EPO LinkedIn post concerning the EPO President's visit to Prague on 3rd June 2026 which is referred to above mentions that, in addition to meeting with the Czech Minister of Industry and Trade, Campinos also met with "representatives of the Czech IPO".
What the LinkedIn post omits to mention is that the main representative of the Czech IPO is its director Josef Kratochvíl who also happens to be Chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation. In other words, the visit to Prague provided the EPO President with a convenient opportunity to "network" with the head of his statutory appointing authority on the latter's home ground.
Readers of Techrights may recall that Kratochvíl was appointed as Administrative Council Chairman in 2018 to succeed Christoph Ernst who had entered the upper echelons of the EPO's senior management as a Vice-President via the notorious "revolving door" between the Council and the Office which it supposed to supervise.
From a political perspective, Kratochvíl is in a somewhat incongruous position because in his primary role as head of the Czech IPO his duty is to represent a state that maintains a healthy scepticism towards the Unified Patent Court and is holding off on ratifying the UPC Agreement for the foreseeable future. However, in his secondary role as Chairman of the Administrative Council he holds a leading position in the governing body of an international organisation which has been aggressively promoting the UPC since the days of the Battistelli presidency.
It isn't clear how Kratochvíl manages to square that particular circle which some people might perceive as a glaring conflict of interest but nobody at the Administrative Council seems particularly worried about such matters.
Since 2018 Campinos and Kratochvíl have existed in a harmonious symbiotic relationship along the lines of the precedent established by their respective predecessors – Battistelli in the case of Campinos and Jesper Kongstad and Christoph Ernst in the case of Kratochvíl.
Indeed, it would hardly be an exaggeration to describe the current Administrative Council Chairman as the trusty old "Czech mate" of the EPO President.
As a matter of fact, back in 2020 Campinos and Kratochvíl signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the European Patent Office (represented by Campinos) and the Administrative Council (represented by Kratochvíl).
Returning now to more recent events, it is worth noting that shortly before their meeting in Prague on 3rd June 2026 Campinos and Kratochvíl had a prior rendezvous at the EPO headquarters in Munich on 1st June 2026 to receive a delegation from the EPO's newest member state Moldova. The EPO delegation on that occasion also included Vice-Presidents Christoph Ernst and Niloofar "Nellie" Simon.
EPO President António Campinos and Administrative Council
Chairman Josef Kratochvíl receive a delegation from the EPO's
newest member state Moldova at EPO headquarters in Munich on
1st June 2026. The EPO delegation includes
Vice-Presidents Christoph Ernst and Niloofar Simon.
As Chairman of the Administrative Council Kratochvíl is clearly predestined play a key role when it comes to organising and moderating the Council's discussions about whether or not to reappoint Campinos.
His role here is comparable to that of Alberto Casado Cerviño, the head of the Spanish delegation who chaired the procedure which led to the election of Benoît Battistelli in 2009. Casado, who previously occupied a prominent role at the EU trademark agency in Alicante between 1994 and 2008, was subsequently rewarded by Battistelli with an EPO Vice-President position. In a similar manner, Christoph Ernst the head of the German delegation who chaired the procedure which led to the election of António Campinos in 2017 was subsequently rewarded with an EPO Vice-President position by Campinos.
To the casual observer, Kratochvíl may appear to be in the position of a "kingmaker" as far as Campinos and his ambitions for reappointment are concerned. However, many EPO insiders are not entirely convinced about that.
Kratochvíl is more of a technical guy whose career started with the study of mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Prague. He often gives the impression of being out of his depth when it comes to the Machiavellian world of EPO power politics. Some insiders consider that he is susceptible to being outwitted by seasoned masters of intrigue like António Campinos and Christoph Ernst.
In the most recent photos taken during the Prague visit of Campinos on 3rd June 2026 Kratochvíl doesn't look too happy. Could it be that he has finally twigged that his real role in EPO affairs is not so much that of a "kingmaker" but rather a mere pawn in the President's reappointment game?
EPO President Campinos and Administrative Council Chairman
Kratochvíl posing for a photo-op at their recent meeting in Prague
on 3rd June 2026. Kratochvíl doesn't look too happy.
Could it be that he has finally twigged it that his real role in
EPO affairs is not so much that of a "kingmaker" but rather a mere
pawn in the game of the President?
That more or less wraps up our sequence of reports on the recent "missions" of the EPO President.
In the remaining parts of this series which are due to follow shortly we will discuss how the EPO President's reappointment campaign raises awkward unresolved questions about EPO governance. The series will finish with a final part speculating about the chances of Campinos securing reappointment for a third term.
Stay tuned for more coming up soon... █