2023-06-30 20:05:08
The election of the new executive director of the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) enters your last phase. The three candidates appointed by the board of directors of the euro agency based in Alicante to replace Belgian Christian Archambeau have been submitted this week to the scrutiny of the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, so all that remains is for the union council make the final decision.
A vote for which still there is no set datebut that everything indicates that it could be held around the next day 12, according to the sources consulted. In any case, the official transfer of powers will not take place until October 1, when Archambeau’s mandate expires, so it could also take a little longer.
At the moment, at the meeting of the board of directors of the EUIPO on June 6, he was the Portuguese candidate and current president of the Board of Appeals of the organization, João Negrao who got the most support, with a total of 15 votes; followed by the Spanish-French candidate and president of the International Trademark Association (INTA), Etienne Sanz de Acedo, with 10 votes; and the Italian and current EUIPO Deputy Executive Director, Andrew of Charleswith five votes.
These results should give an idea of where the votes of the competent ministers of the 27 countries that must make the final decision -since in the EUIPO council it is the intellectual property offices of each member state that vote and, therefore, already reflect the position of each government-, although other sources point that the dynamics of each organism are different, so everything would be open.
In their appearance in parliament, the three candidates presented their plans to improve Euroagency services responsible for managing trademarks and industrial designs, but they also had to respond to MEPs questionswho did not hesitate to put them in a bind.
For example, the German Marion Walsmann asked Sanz de Acedo if he did not see a conflict of interests in choosing to preside over the EUIPO, when he is currently responsible for a lobby dedicated to the defense of registered trademarks, something that, from certain circles, they believe may be incompatible. The Spanish-French candidate, who although born in San Sebastián He has lived a large part of his life in Alicanteremembered that it is actually Euroagency official and that you requested a surplus when he was offered to preside over INTA.
“Every year I have to renew my petition and detail my activities and the EUIPO has never considered that there is a conflict of interest”, he responded emphatically, before also stressing that in carrying out his activities he has always kept “away from the work of the board of directors and the budget committee of the EUIPO” .
A salary of 17,600 euros per month
The base salary of whoever is elected as the new executive director of the EUIPO will be 17,639 euros per month, as stated in the call for the job offer published by the organization after rejecting the continuity of Archambeau.
For his part, the Italian candidate, as the organization’s current number two, had to face questions about the drop in income suffered by the EUIPO -due to a drop in registrations- and the alleged lack of agility of the current team of which he is a part to control costs, an aspect in which, for example, his Spanish-French opponent also had an impact. Andrea Di Carlo assured, on the contrary, that the Euroagency has already applied a “cost containment program” which allowed him to close the exercise with a positive operating resultdespite the decline in revenue.
Of course, Di Carlo demanded that the EUIPO be endowed with a more flexible rate systemwhich would allow better adaptation to the circumstances since, he pointed out, that with the decrease in registrations and accumulated inflation, income has fallen in real terms by 40%.
Finally, the Portuguese candidate was questioned by the Danish MEP Karen Melchior about what he considered a resource room productivity drop who presides and over chow has he reconciled this charge with his campaign for the presidency of the EUIPO. João Negrão fully rejected Melchior’s statements and assured that the Euroagency appeal body has made “more work than ever” in his history and, about his campaign, he recalled that in reality it is the proposing countries -in this case Portugal- who carry them out and that their participation in it has been during their free days. In fact, he claimed to be on vacation at the time of his appearance in Parliament.
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