Previously in the series:

1. Virtual Injustice -- Part 1: António's Increasingly Wonky Legal Fudge Factory
2. Virtual Injustice -- Part 2: The ViCo Oral Proceedings of 28 May 2021
3. Virtual Injustice -- Part 3: All the President's Men…
4. Virtual Injustice -- Part 4: Mihály Ficsor, the EPO's Hungarian “Fixer”
5. Virtual Injustice -- Part 5: Benoît's “Friends” in Budapest

Ficsor (left) and Campinos (right) at the opening of the UPC judges' training centre in Budapest (March 2014).

Summary: Benoît Battistelli, António Campinos, and the Hungarian link of the EPO

We have already mentioned that as deputy director of the HIPO between 2000 and 2016, Ficsor acted as the Hungarian representative on various international bodies dealing with IP matters.

In particular, following Hungary's ratification of the EPC in 2003 [PDF], he acted as a national delegate on the Administrative Council of the EPO. Between 1 July 2005 and 31 December 2010 he was chairman of the Administrative Council's Committee on Patent Law.

"Between 1 July 2005 and 31 December 2010 he was chairman of the Administrative Council's Committee on Patent Law."Similarly, following Hungary's accession to the EU in 2004, he sat on the Administrative Board of the OHIM/EUIPO in Alicante.

In January 2011 he was appointed to the position of Chairman of the Administrative Board. In that capacity he had close contact with the executive director of the OHIM/EUIPO – who was at that time none other than a certain António Serge de Pinho Campinos, who will be familiar to readers of Techrights as the current President of the European Patent Office.

"On that occasion, they took the field together to cut of the ribbon at the inauguration of a new € 40 million building."As might be expected, Ficsor and Campinos turn up together on a regular basis in photo-ops from that period.

For example, the 2014 Annual Report of the HIPO includes a photo of Campinos and Ficsor at the opening of the UPC judges' training centre in Budapest in March of that year.

Campinos and Ficsor in Budapest in March 2014 - Source: Annual Report of the HIPO. [PDF]

Later in the same year, Ficsor and Campinos were spotted together in Alicante at the celebrations to mark the 20^th anniversary of the establishment of the EU's trademark office, OHIM/EUIPO in November 2014.

On that occasion, they took the field together to cut of the ribbon at the inauguration of a new € 40 million building.

"In the next part, we shall see how Ficsor’s close connections with Campinos came in handy when he was looking for new employment opportunities after he left the Hungarian IPO in 2016."The photo-op shows Campinos and Ficsor accompanied by Anne Rejnhold Jørgensen from the Danish Patent and Trademark Office, a close associate of DKPTO director Kongstad, who was the Chair of the OHIM/EUIPO Budgetary Committee at the time in question.

Battistelli also be seen, lurking in the background on the right hand edge of the photo.

Campinos (left) and Ficsor (right) at the inauguration of a new OHIM building in Alicante (November 2014).

In the next part, we shall see how Ficsor's close connections with Campinos came in handy when he was looking for new employment opportunities after he left the Hungarian IPO in 2016. ⬆