https://www.epo.org/en/node/president

President António Campinos

EPO President António Campinos - new Oct 2023 photo

António Campinos took up office as the President of the European Patent Office (EPO), an international organisation with 39 member states, on 1 July 2018. With some 6 300 staff of 34 different nationalities, he leads one of the largest public service institutions in Europe. Headquartered in Munich with offices in Berlin, Brussels, The Hague and Vienna, the EPO was founded with the aim of strengthening co-operation on patents in Europe. Through the EPO's centralised patent granting procedure, inventors are able to obtain high-quality patent protection in up to 45 countries, covering a market of some 700 million people.


Prior to the appointment as President of the EPO, António Campinos was the Executive Director of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in Alicante/Spain from 2010 until June 2018. The EUIPO is responsible for managing the EU trademark and the registered Community design.

Mr Campinos came to the EUIPO from the Portuguese National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) where he held different executive roles. He joined the INPI in 2000 as Trademark Director and in 2005 was elected its President. From 2005 to 2007 he headed the Portuguese Delegation on the Administrative Board of the EUIPO, and was Chairman of this board from 2008 to 2010. In parallel (from 2005 to 2010) he was head of the Portuguese Delegation at the Administrative Council of the EPO, Chairman of the Working Group on Industrial Property at the Council of the European Union during the Portuguese Presidency (July to December 2007), Chairman of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Legal Development of the Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks, and Head of the Portuguese Delegation at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) General Assemblies.

Mr Campinos' career also includes his time as President of the Administrative Council of the Centre d'Études Internationales de la Propiété Intellectuelle (CEIPI) at the University of Strasbourg for a term of five years. In addition, he was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Alicante, Spain, in 2017. He was also inducted to the IP Hall of Fame of the Intellectual Asset Management magazine in recognition of his significant contribution to intellectual property law and practice.

As a Portuguese national with a Master's degree in Public Law and Advanced European Studies, he began his career in 1998 in the public administration sector in Portugal at the Ministry of Economy and Innovation as Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State to the Minister.