João Negrão to become new executive director of EUIPO

According to a press release by the Portuguese Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI), Portuguese native João Negrão is to become the new executive director of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The development is the result of a vote by the EU Council in Brussels yesterday.

João Negrão ©EUIPO

At present, Negrão is EUIPO Boards of Appeal president, a position he has held since April 2021. Negrão has had various roles within the EUIPO. For example, in 2010 he was appointed head of the executive director’s cabinet before becoming director of the Department of International Cooperation and Legal Affairs in 2011. He remained in this post for ten years.

Prior to joining the EUIPO, Negrão spent just over nine years at the INPI, where he held various positions in international relations.

Controversial legacy

Negrão will take over from his Belgian predecessor Christian Archambeau on 1 October, when Archambeau’s term comes to an end. However, the appointment of a new executive director has taken place amid a flurry of controversy.

According to various media reports, including from Managing IP and Politico, the EUIPO management board decided in November last year not to renew Archambeau’s tenure for a second term. This was, as reported by Managing IP, despite management board chair Jorma Hanski recommending he stayed on following a positive performance assessment. Speculation abounds that the decision may be due to fewer trademark applications being filed in 2022, a view denied by Archambeau.

Archambeau filed a complaint against the decision and sought compensation. Then, in March 2023, the management board suspended some of the executive director’s administrative powers until the end of his tenure. Such a suspension, said the management board chair, is in line with Article 4(f) of Decision MB-17-01 from 2017. JUVE Patent is currently unaware of what became of the complaint.

Ahead of the race

Although only the EU Council can officially decide to oust or appoint the executive director, the management board launched a search for Archambeau’s successor before the council had made an official decision.

Three candidates were in the running. In an unofficial vote among the EUIPO management board in early June, Negrão won the most votes with 15. French-Spanish national Etienne Sanz de Acedo, current president of the International Trademark Association (Inta), received ten votes and EUIPO deputy executive director Andrea Di Carlo, an Italian national, received five votes.

In the final vote by the EU Council on 12 July, Negrão won by 19 votes, with Sanz de Acedo receiving eight. Third candidate Di Carlo apparently withdrew from the race the day before.

Portuguese in power

Negrão is the second Portuguese national to take pole position at the head of a major European patent organisation. In June 2022, EPO member states voted in António Campinos for a second term as the office’s president, beginning 1 July 2023.

Campinos’ re-election was also not without contention. The EPO first appointed him as president in July 2018. He succeeded the highly-controversial Frenchman Benoît Battistelli, whose term was plagued by a number of confrontations with EPO staff. Furthermore, the preceding five years also saw a long-standing discussion regarding the independence of the Boards of Appeal. The debate was especially fierce around the boards’ administrative function of reviewing the EPO’s decisions.

Campinos’ primary aim in taking office was therefore to restore peace. Nevertheless, although EPO member states praised his first term, not everyone was happy with his re-appointment. The EPO’s Staff Union (SUEPO) called on its members to demonstrate in front of the EPO building during his re-election. Many EPO users have spoken to JUVE Patent regarding Campinos’ continuation with the efficiency strategy initiated under his predecessor, while other outlets have reported on a ‘hostile’ atmosphere under Campinos.

Future challenges

The EUIPO faces a number of future challenges. In addition to the decrease in filings in 2022, the EUIPO’s annual report also showed there was a decrease in trademark decisions from the Boards of Appeal, of which Negrão is head, in 2022 compared to the previous year.

In a hearing as part of the application process for the role of executive director, the EU Council asked Negrão to justify what MEP Karen Melchior described as a “decrease in productivity”. However, Negrão denied this was the case, insisting that “we have had the best year last year so far and biggest production ever by the Boards of Appeal” (see: 15:42:36).

Furthermore, the EUIPO is set to play a greater role in SEP regulation in the future. In April, the EU Commission put forth a proposal for a European FRAND regulation, which would see stricter monitoring of the standard essentiality of SEPs and more transparent licensing. As part of the proposal, the EUIPO will be responsible for implementing the measures.

A competence centre under the umbrella of the EUIPO would be responsible for maintaining a list of SEPs and their holders. The latter must then sign up with the EUIPO to charge patent fees or take legal action against implementers. In addition, the EUIPO would carry out non-binding essentiality checks.