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Posted in Europe, Finance, Patents at 12:32 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Series parts:
The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part I: Let the Sunshine In!The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part II: A “Unanimous” Endorsement?The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part III: Three Missing VotesThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IV: The Founding StatesThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part V: Germany Says “Ja”The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VI: A Distinct Lack of Dutch CourageThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VII: Luxembourgish LaxityThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part VIII: Perfidious Albion and Pusillanimous HiberniaThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IX: More Holes Than Swiss CheeseThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part X: Introducing the Controversial Christian BockThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XI: “General Bock” – Battistelli’s Swiss Apprentice?The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XII: The French ConnectionThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XIII: Battistelli’s Iberian Facilitators – SpainThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XIV: Battistelli’s Iberian Facilitators – PortugalThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XV: Et Tu Felix Austria…The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVI: The Demise of the Austrian Double-DipperThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVII: The Non-Monolithic Nordic BlocThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XVIII: Helsinki’s AccordThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IXX: The Baltic StatesThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XX: The Visegrád GroupThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXI: The Balkan League – The Doyen and His “Protégée”The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXII: The Balkan League – North Macedonia and AlbaniaThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXIII: The Balkan League – BulgariaThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXIV: The Balkan League – RomaniaThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXV: The Balkan League – Fresh Blood or Same Old, Same Old?The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXVI: A Trojan Horse on the Budget and Finance CommitteeThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXVII: Cypriot ComplicityThe EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part XXVIII: Benoît and António’s Loyal “Habibi”The EPO’s Overseer/Overseen Collusion — Part IXXX: The EPOnian Micro-States – Monaco and MaltaYOU ARE HERE ☞ San Marino and the Perfidious Betrayal of Liberty
Image: Silvia Rossi and Bruno CinquantiniSilvia Rossi and Bruno Cinquantini, the delegates from San Marino, were guilty of a shameful betrayal of the principle of “Libertas” at the EPO.
Summary: San Marino took a payment from the notorious Battistelli just months after approving an unlawful proposal from him; the payment to San Marino was authorised on the very same occasion (136th meeting of the Administrative Council) as these unlawful “Strike Regulations” being rubber-stamped, which makes it seem like a potential bribe previously endowed also to Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, and Monaco (the snapshot at the bottom also shows Lithuania and some financial figures)
Finally, we come to the Most Serene Republic of San Marino, a landlocked enclave situated close to the city of Rimini on the Adriatic coast of Italy.
San Marino lays claim to being the oldest extant sovereign state, as well as the oldest constitutional republic. More recently, it has acquired a rather unsavoury reputation as a tax haven and hub for money laundering.
San Marino acceded to the European Patent Convention on 1 July 2009.
> “San Marino acceded to the European Patent Convention on 1 July 2009.”
In June 2013, its delegation on the EPO’s Administrative Council was headed by Silvia Rossi who has presided over the State Office for Patents and Trademarks since January 2006.
Rossi’s deputy was the Italian patent attorney, Bruno Cinquantini.
Cinquantini was born in Blera, Italy, in 1953 and he graduated from the University of Pisa where he studied aircraft engineering.
He joined the EPO in 1980 as an examiner of patents at grade A1 assigned to The Hague branch office. He transferred to the EPO’s Munich head office on 1 September 1984 and to its branch office in Vienna on 17 January 1992. In February 1996 he returned to Munich as a principal administrator at grade A4.
> “He joined the EPO in 1980 as an examiner of patents at grade A1 assigned to The Hague branch office. He transferred to the EPO’s Munich head office on 1 September 1984 and to its branch office in Vienna on 17 January 1992. In February 1996 he returned to Munich as a principal administrator at grade A4.”
While serving in the EPO office in Vienna, Cinquantini lived either in the city or on the outskirts. However, he retained his flat in Munich and with one exception his sons attended the European School there. For a brief period during 1992-93, his wife and second son lived in Blera, and the boy went to school there. By 1993 his wife and three sons were together again in Munich, and they lived in his flat there until he himself returned in 1996.
After returning to Munich, Cinquantini submitted a request to the EPO for an “installation allowance” connected with his relocation from Vienna. He also requested an additional “installation allowance” for his family, falsely claiming that his wife and three dependent children had taken up residence in Munich on 1 March 1996.
Shortly thereafter, Cinquantini moved into a bigger apartment in Munich with his family. It seems that he planned to cover the costs of this move with the “installation allowance” payments that he hoped to obtain from the EPO.
The EPO granted Cinquantini a basic “installation allowance” for himself in respect of his relocation from Vienna. This is normal practice when an official transfers his or her place of employment from one EPO duty station to another.
However, the additional claim to an allowance for his family members was rejected on the grounds that they had stayed on at the same address in Munich while he had been serving in Vienna.
The aggrieved Cinquantini proceeded to bring a complaint before the ILOAT in Geneva.
The case was decided by Judgment No. 1820 delivered on 28 January 1999 (local copy [PDF]). The Tribunal found Cinquantini’s pleas for “a more liberal construction” of the applicable rules to be “unconvincing” and it dismissed his complaint as “utterly devoid of merit”.
> “When San Marino made its debut on the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation in October 2009, Cinquantini mysteriously appeared as its deputy head of delegation, a position which he has held ever since.”
Some time later in the same year, Cinquantini left the EPO. It is not clear whether his departure was due to “sour grapes” over his failure to obtain the additional “installation allowance” for his family, or whether there were other reasons behind it.
In any case, he embarked on a new career as an “IP consultant” with the prominent Italian law firm, Notarbartolo & Gervasi.
When San Marino made its debut on the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation in October 2009, Cinquantini mysteriously appeared as its deputy head of delegation, a position which he has held ever since.
His official title is “Advisor to the Secretariat of State for Industry, Handcraft and Commerce”.
Image: Bruno Cinquantini, Silvia Rossi, and Marco ArzilliBruno Cinquantini (l.) and Silvia Rossi (c.) with Secretary of State Marco Arzilli (r.).
Like the other EPO micro-states, the role of San Marino in “le système Battistelli” was very much that of a “captured state”.
In this regard, it’s worth noting that the agenda of the 136th Meeting of the Administrative Council included a request from Benoît Battistelli to the Council to grant him a mandate to conclude a bilateral agreement with San Marino.
> “Like the other EPO micro-states, the role of San Marino in “le système Battistelli” was very much that of a “captured state”.”
The preface of the relevant proposal document – CA/54/13 (warning: epo.org link) – notes that similar agreements had already been concluded with Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Monaco.
Now it was San Marino’s turn, and the Council agreed to the proposal submitted by Battistelli in CA/54/13. We shall keep this local copy [PDF] as the original will vanish one day.
A few months after Rossi and Cinquantini had played their part in rubber-stamping the “Strike Regulations”, their supervising minister, Marco Arzilli was invited to Munich for the “honour” of signing of a bilateral agreement with EPO President Benoît Battistelli in October 2013: (warning: epo.org link)
>
>
> “This is a very important signature for the San Marino business world, and a step forward for innovation and development,” said Minister Arzilli. … Thanks to this agreement with the EPO, the Republic of San Marino can be on an equal footing with other European countries with regards to the possibility to innovate and enter new markets.”
>
Image: Arzilli with BattistelliSan Marino Secretary of State Arzilli signing a bilateral agreement with Battistelli in October 2013.
By a curious irony, the national coat of arms of San Marino bears the Latin motto “Libertas” (“Liberty”). This is supposed to refer to the last words of the state’s reputed founder St. Marinus: “Relinquo vos liberos ab utroque homine” (Translation: “I leave you free from both men”, referring to the Roman Emperor and the Pope).
Unfortunately, the San Marino delegates on the EPO’s Administrative Council did little to ease the burden of EPO employees languishing under the yoke of the EPO’s corrupt and tyrannical diarchy, composed of EPO President Benoît Battistelli and his "protector" Jesper Kongstad.
Image: Battistelli-Kongstad diarchyThe San Marino delegation betrayed the guiding principle of “Libertas” by acquiescing in the corrupt and oppressive tyranny of the Battistelli-Kongstad diarchy.
As a matter of fact, by endorsing Battistelli’s “Strike Regulations”, Rossi and Cinquantini helped to trample on the fundamental rights of EPO staff.
> “As a matter of fact, by endorsing Battistelli’s “Strike Regulations”, Rossi and Cinquantini helped to trample on the fundamental rights of EPO staff.”
Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that they betrayed the cause of “Libertas”, which is supposed to be the guiding principle of the “Most Serene Republic” that they purported to represent.
Cinquantini’s complicity in this affair was particularly perfidious in view of the fact that he had previously worked at the EPO for almost two decades between 1980 and 1999. The fundamental rights of his former colleagues were clearly of no consequence to this shameless opportunist.
Image: Bruno CinquantiniBruno Cinquantini’s opportunistic sell-out of his former colleagues at the EPO was particularly perfidious.
Rossi and Cinquantini continue to represent San Marino on the EPO’s Administrative Council to this day. So far, they have not been called to account for their actions in June 2013, nor are they ever likely to be.
> “In the upcoming parts, we plan to look at these abstentionist delegations in more detail.”
That concludes our in-depth look at the Administrative Council delegations which voted in favour of Battistelli’s “Strike Regulations” in June 2013.
As we previously noted, no delegation had sufficient integrity and moral courage to vote against Battistelli’s egregiously flawed proposal. However, seven delegations withheld their support by abstaining.
In the upcoming parts, we plan to look at these abstentionist delegations in more detail. █
Image: San Marino and EPO
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