Following his post earlier this week, the IPKat has just heard that the EPO Administrative Council have failed to reach an agreement on who should be the next EPO President. None of the candidates managed to get the required qualified majority of three quarters of the votes cast by member states. The Council has therefore decided to continue the election process at its next meeting in December.
The IPKat is slightly disappointed at this news, but on the other hand is heartened that his poll results might now be useful to tell the Administrative Council which way they should be voting. After 179 votes, the poll gives the Swedish candidate Susanne Ås Sivborg a commanding lead with 107 votes, 59% of the total. The next highest scoring candidate, Roland Grossenbacher (apparently the current front-runner), has so far managed only 29 votes.
If you have not yet voted for your favourite candidate, please do so. The poll is still up on the sidebar and, given the recent news, the IPKat has decided to leave the poll open for another week to give everyone interested a chance to have their say.
The IPKat is slightly disappointed at this news, but on the other hand is heartened that his poll results might now be useful to tell the Administrative Council which way they should be voting. After 179 votes, the poll gives the Swedish candidate Susanne Ås Sivborg a commanding lead with 107 votes, 59% of the total. The next highest scoring candidate, Roland Grossenbacher (apparently the current front-runner), has so far managed only 29 votes.
If you have not yet voted for your favourite candidate, please do so. The poll is still up on the sidebar and, given the recent news, the IPKat has decided to leave the poll open for another week to give everyone interested a chance to have their say.
And the next EPO President is ...
![And the next EPO President is ...]()
Reviewed by David Pearce
on
Friday, October 30, 2009
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The French (Pompidou Le Jeune) and the Swiss (Smiling Paul Braendli) have already had a go. Susi seems a bit young and inexperienced for the cauldron that is the EPO, so it's The Great Dane for me. Woof
ReplyDeletePerhaps Tony Blair is now available for this presidency.
ReplyDeleteThe sparrows are tweeting from the roofs, as we say in German, that Susanne Sivborg has withdrawn her candidacy and Roland Grossenbacher has no chance because (a) he's Swiss and the EU don't want him, (b) he's Swiss and they've already had their turn (Braendli) and (c) he's considered a strong character and unlikely to be pliable enough for the Council.
ReplyDeleteThat leaves Batistelli and Kongstad. Oh dear. Let's hope the rumours about a knight in shining armour sponsored by the EU are true.
Unless something altogether amazing happens, if the last Anonymous is right, I'd also rule out Batistelli, as the French also had their turn, and he's also quite a strong character. Moreover, it appears from the epi interviews that Batistelli is on a direct collision course with Grossenbacher on IFRS, and that isn't going to help him. Grossenbacher may not be powerful enough to husband all the necessary votes to get elected, but he sure enough does have enough sway to sabotage Batistelli's run.
ReplyDeleteWhich would then leave Kongstad. Oh dear. Since he's about as popular as Attila the Hun among the EPO's staff, and the feeling is quite openly reciprocal, we could be in for a long, long series of strikes. Better try to get your patent applications granted quickly...
From all comments it looks like three of the candidates could cause heavy weather at the EPO should HE be elected. Is it the intention of the AC to turn out the lights?
ReplyDeleteTime for Sankta Lucia....
As a Danish EPA I know Jesper Kongstad and his standpoints very well. Jesper Kongstad will focus on improving the EPO for the industry and I am certain that he will go into a positive dialog with the Examiners, in other words - no strikes by the EPO Examiners.
ReplyDeleteSome interesting follow-up comments from the IAM blog here (registration required, unfortunately).
ReplyDelete