How the EPO got its president

01 April 2010

It took six months and 20 rounds of voting but the Administrative Council of the EPO last month finally chose a successor to out-going president Alison Brimelow

James Nurton and Emma Barraclough, London

Benoît Battistelli, head of the French IP Office INPI and former chairman of the Admin Council, secured three-quarters of the votes of EPO member states at a meeting on March 1.

National representatives were close to postponing the election of a president for a fourth time, before Battistelli finally and narrowly won the necessary level of support.

Battistelli's success came after his candidacy had gradually built up support during 20 separate votes over the four Council meetings. After the previous vote in February, he was just one short of the required threshold, and was expected to have gathered enough momentum to win the vote comfortably at the fourth attempt.

But, says one Admin Council member: "The [final] vote was not a formality. We had a number of votes that went up and down. It involved very small margins."

The acting chair of...

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