This followed a failure to select one of the four nominated candidates at three earlier selection meetings at Council meetings in October and December 2009, and February 2010, when none of the candidates managed to obtain the required qualified majority of three-quarters of the votes cast by EPO member states.
The four candidates under consideration were, Susanne Sivborg, Director General of the Swedish Patent and Registration Office; Roland Grossenbacher, Director of the Eidgenössisches Institut für Geistiges Eigentum, Switzerland; Jesper Kongstad, Director General of the Danish Patent and Trademark Office and Battistelli, who is Director General of France’s Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle.
Battistelli will succeed the current president Alison Brimelow on July 1. His term runs for five years.
The Administrative Council, made up of delegations from the member states, is the Organisation’s legislative body, responsible for supervising the EPO, approving the budget and appointing senior managers. Under the European Patent Convention, a qualified majority of three-quarters of the votes cast by the organisation’s member states is required to appoint a new president.
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