Even without the crooked old President, Team Battistelli is still in charge of the Office and the Organisation

Summary: Campinos already sounds just like Battistelli, at least as far as his stance on the UPC goes (never mind attitude towards staff and the rule of law); Team UPC controls the Office and the Organisation 'by proxy', advancing the interests of litigation fanatics

IN the first EPO statement after announcing that António Campinos becomes President we see an obvious lie, right from the headline, "Europe gears up for the Unitary Patent" (warning: epo.org link), preceding some assorted quotes from Margot Fröhlinger and Campinos.

Under Mr. Campinos the EPO carries on lobbying for and lying about the unconstitutional 'unitary' patents, which are being pursued/sought by the litigation 'industry' and patent trolls rather than European companies. We finally have some partial transcript of what Campinos said:

"The Unitary Patent and the Unified Patent Court are sources of great untapped potential," said António Campinos during his first keynote speech as EPO President. "This project will form a vital additional tool for providing access to the IP market. And in essence, that is what the EPO is about - facilitating access to effective and high-quality patents."

Mr Campinos also expressed his confidence that the UPC and the Unitary Patent would come into operation very soon, explaining that 16 Member States have already ratified the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court and that there is good reason to believe that the new system will start with close to 20 states. "We now stand on the cusp of a fully operational patent for the EU," he said.

Is Campinos a legislator now? His job should be only to grant patents correctly. That's all. Campinos already sounds just like Battistelli. As far as policy is concerned, these two are likely indistinguishable. But it doesn't surprise us; we didn't really expect anything else. The above release also mentions Jérôme Debrulle, who had a lot to do with Campinos getting this job.

The EPO is very seriously compromised; a change of President is barely enough to salvage it. They need to take it further. ⬆