December 2009
The term of office of the current President of the European Patent Office, Alison Brimelow, ends in June 2010. Four candidates have put themselves forward for the position.
For any candidate to be successful, they must gain three quarters of the votes of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation. The Administrative Council is made up of representatives of all member states.
The Administrative Council first attempted to decide the new President in October this year. Three quarters of the council could not be persuaded to vote for one candidate. The Council therefore deferred the issue until their following meeting, which they held this week.
Unfortunately, we still have stalemate, despite one of the candidates dropping out. Once again, the meeting has ended without any candidate being sufficiently popular to gain three quarters of the votes.
It is unclear exactly what will happen now, but it looks likely that the decision will have to be made in March 2010, perilously close to the end of Alison Brimelow’s tenure. Alison may be asked to stay on for a few more months, while the Administrative Council try and find some resolution.
The present situation mirrors that of six years ago, when the Administrative Council could not choose between two candidates, Alison Brimelow and Alain Pompidou. On that occasion, some frantic behind-the-scenes negotiations resulted in a six year presidential term, divided equally between the two candidates. M. Pompidou was President from 2004 to 2007 and Ms. Brimelow from 2007.
It remains to be seen whether the Administrative Council will settle for such a compromise again.
We will keep you updated of developments.
11/12/09