António Serge De Pinho Campinos, 41 years old, of Portuguese nationality, takes over as the new President of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) as from 1 October.
Mr Campinos graduated from the University of Montpellier with a Master's Degree in Public Law and a Post Graduation in Community Law, and started his career at the Court of First Instance of the European Communities, before moving on to roles in the banking sector and then the Public Administration in Portugal.
Mr Campinos, who has wide international experience in the field of intellectual property and is fluent in Portuguese, English, French and Spanish, became President of the Directive Council of the National Institute of Industrial Property in Portugal in 2005. He has been closely associated with OHIM for a number of years, serving first as head of the Portuguese Delegation in the office's Administrative Board and then as its Chairman, since 2008.
At OHIM, he took a leading role in a number of important issues, contributing for the reshaping of the institutional cooperation framework with the Office's stakeholders, the reduction of the Community trade marks fees for applicants and making the Administrative Board's work more efficient, effective and transparent, particularly through promoting and supporting the participation of users' organisations in the OHIM governing bodies."