Meet the president

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Alison Brimelow became president of the European Patent Office in July 2007. She has a challenging brief and creating a premium ‘high-quality’ product is just one of the sizeable hurdles to be cleared, as Edward Fennell explains

When Alison Brimelow took over from Alain Pompidou as president of the European Patent Office (EPO), it was widely viewed as a very smooth transition. A very diplomatic compromise hatched four years ago by the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation had worked. With deadlock over who should be appointed to the six-year post and no sign of anyone backing down, it was agreed that there should be a straightforward Anglo-French agreement. Alain Pompidou would do the job for half the term and he would then hand over to his British successor, Alison Brimelow.

Now that Alison has filled the top spot, the wisdom in that arrangement can be seen. Alain Pompidou brought to the job, as she puts it, ‘supreme diplomatic skills’, which have been of real benefit to the EPO. She, in turn, will inject well-honed management expertise and the practical experience of running the UK Patent Office for four years. ‘With Alain’s departure we lost something, but then I can bring something else to the role,’ she says.

Alison’s distinctive qualities can best be described as a down-to-earth ability to ‘cut to the chase’ and focus on the practical challenges facing the organisation. Not that she is short on diplomatic skills herself. Her father was a career diplomat (and ending up running the Russian desk) and she herself started her career after university in the diplomatic service. The benefit of this, she says, is that she has an in-built capacity to see questions from ‘the other person’s point of view’.

Patent quality
Clearly that kind of 360-degree vision is vital in running a pan-European organisation. But as the EPO moves on from its 30th anniversary celebrations, the focus of attention is on immediate practicalities. As she commented when she took over as president: ‘The task now is to make sure that the patents that we grant are relevant. What we need is not more patents, but more good patents. This will enable the EPO to remain a confident and competent organisation which can continue to set the global benchmark in patenting.’

The global dimension is critical and reflects how much has happened in the past 30 years. ‘The world has changed radically from when the EPO was set up in 1977 as a Treaty organization with just 16 members,’ she observes. ‘That membership has grown to more than 30 and the patent business has gone global. You cannot think in local or national terms any more. People want patents around the world.’

The implications of this are obvious and far-reaching. Ask anyone what the key challenge is facing the EPO and the answer will come back instantly: ‘backlogs’.

With some 200,000-300,000 applications outstanding, the European problem is just the tip of the iceberg. ‘It has been suggested that, globally, the backlog is 10 million,’ says Alison. ‘Personally I think that is too high a figure.’

She continues: ‘But even if you reduce it by two thirds – say to three million – you can still see the scale of the problem.’

Given this enormous backlog, is there bound to be a trade off between quality and quantity? She is firmly on the side of quality and says that her principal objective is to ensure that the EPO can continue to adhere to its traditional high standards in today’s changed environment. But how can this be achieved?

‘We need to work effectively together. I want the EPO to be able to focus on its core business while allowing the national offices to engage with the tasks that they can do well at national level.’
- Alison Brimelow

‘In many cases the applications are very poorly drafted. They are casually put in and they leave it to us to try and sort it out. Inevitably this is very time consuming.’ Alison is determined that a patent from the EPO should be a ‘premium product’. She puts the emphasis on quality because ‘otherwise it is not worth having’. That is why she emphasises the importance of the applicant’s role. ‘I would say to applicants that you have a responsibility, too. Think more carefully about what you do and stop the sloppy drafting.’

Industry education
To help achieve this, the EPO has been considering undertaking some educational work with industry just to help applicants make a better job of what they submit. But Alison admits there are some deep-seated problems within the regulatory framework, which reflects changes in technology pretty much undreamed of in the 1970s.

‘The developments with new technology have been very challenging,’ she says. ‘There is a big question over how we handle computer-implemented inventions and in the area of biotechnology the European Directive is difficult in places to interpret.’

She is now investing a lot of hope in the prospects for the London Agreement. This is an optional agreement between member states of the European Patent Organisation, which has the effect of lightening the translation requirements for patents. Those countries that sign up to it – of which, significantly, France is the most recent – renounce the demand for an integral translation of patents into their national language. Instead, only the claims of the patent are to be translated. This will cut expenses substantially.

In a further move to streamline processes she is looking for greater co-operation between the various national patent offices. A big step towards this was taken at the beginning of September when special search services beyond the scope of a standard patentability search were to be provided by the national offices of the EPO’s member states (rather than the EPO itself). ‘I’m hoping to move towards a European patent network of the national offices,’ Alison continues. ‘We need to work effectively together. I want the EPO to be able to focus on its core business while allowing the national offices to engage with the tasks that they can do well at national level.’

The development of the Community Patent is something she welcomes, and on a global basis she is looking for greater co-operation between the five big players. ‘Of the US, Japan, China, South Korea and Europe, we in Europe are the smallest. The US is very much a known quantity, but China in particular is going to be increasingly important.’

The critical issue she says is the ability to access and use prior art from around the world. ‘I want to see an end to pointless duplication,’ she adds.

Alison aspires to a ‘global system in which our premium product is well understood’. Looking forward, when her three-year term ends, there is the possibility of standing for re-election. In the ever-changing world of IP, much can happen between now and 2010.

Alison Brimelow career highlights:

1973 Joined the British Diplomatic service, later moving to the Department
of Trade and Industry

1991 Head of the Trade Marks Registry, Patent Office

1997 Rejoined Department of Trade and Industry to work on European and international competition policy

1999 Chief Executive and Comptroller general of the UK Patent Office

1999-2003 Head of UK Delegation on the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation

2004-2006 Chair of Steering Board of the National Weights and Measures Laboratory

July 2007 Takes office as president of the European Patent Office

This article first appeared in IP Review, issue 20

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