António Campinos takes over as President of the European Patent Office

Munich, 2 July 2018 - António Campinos took up office today as President of the European Patent Office (EPO). With a strong record of 20 years of executive leadership experience in the Intellectual Property field, the Portuguese national was elected President in October 2017 by the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation, the EPO's legislative body, for a five-year term.

In his first statement as EPO President, Mr Campinos said: "I'm delighted to start my role as President of the EPO, an organisation already respected greatly for the services that it offers. The EPO is undoubtedly a success story and we want to build upon that by assessing with our staff and stakeholders if improvements can be made. That means working to ensure that the Office will not only be efficient, but also effective in delivering high quality patents to our users to support Europe's innovation sector."

The new President brings an extensive IP background to the post and has dedicated his professional career to the protection of intellectual property. 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. He joined the Portuguese IP Office, 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) Mr Campinos 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.

The EPO

With nearly 7 000 staff, the European Patent Office (EPO) is 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 44 countries, covering a market of some 700 million people. The EPO is also the world's leading authority in patent information and patent searching.

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