EUIPO confirms new permanent director

The EUIPO has confirmed the permanent appointment of Christian Archambeau as executive director.

Archambeau has been acting executive director of the office since 1 July 2018, before which he served as the EUIPO’s deputy executive director. He joined the EUIPO in 2010, having previously worked in roles including principal director at the European Patent Office and various management positions at the European Space Agency.

During his tenure as deputy executive director, Archambeau has been responsible for some major operations at the office. He directly oversaw a number of areas, including the finance department, the infrastructure department, the IT department, the EUIPO Academy and the EUIPO’s quality, performance and risk activities. One major project was the introduction of the office’s activity-based budgeting and management, which led to process simplifications that – as the EUIPO describes – “helped contribute to substantial annual cost efficiency gains”. The project enabled the EUIPO to cope with a significant growth in workload from EU trademark and design registrations, while also taking on increased international cooperation activities.

Reflecting on the announcement, INTA President Tish Berard stated: “We hope that under Mr Archambeau’s leadership, the Office will complete its transformation into a modern, forward-thinking and responsive office. In that respect, the EUIPO should lead on enforcement (offline and online) through the Observatory, focus on the use and impact of new technologies, and continue to promote convergence practices among EU national offices as well as its flagship tools outside the EU, always at the benefit of its users and without overreaching on its financial and human resources.”