Election of the President of the European Patent Office

Munich 30 October, 2003 (PROTEXT)- At its 94th meeting, heldin Munich and chaired by Mr Mogens Kring (DK), the AdministrativeCouncil of the European Patent Organisation decided on 29 October2003 to elect:

- Mr Alain Pompidou (FR) to serve as President of theEuropean Patent Office for a three-year term beginning on 1 July2004

- Ms Alison Brimelow (GB) to serve as President of theEuropean Patent Office for a term of three years following theexpiry of Mr Pompidou's mandate, ie from 1 July 2007. The formalappointment will be made at the Council's 95th meeting, to beheld in Munich in December 2003. Under the European PatentConvention, a qualified majority of three-quarters of theOrganisation's member states is required for a decision on theappointment of the President. The dual-mandate decision followsthe failure of several previous selection procedures. Itreflects the wish of the member states to find a balancedsolution, taking account of political considerations but also ofthe Organisation's duty, towards both the users of the patentsystem and the staff of the European Patent Office, to give aclear direction to its activities as soon as possible. TheOrganisation is aware of the exceptional nature of thisdecision, and does not want it to be viewed as setting aprecedent. The decision also testifies to the European PatentOrganisation's confidence in these two outstanding individualsas successors to Mr Ingo Kober (DE). The Organisation isconvinced that the successive mandates will enable the EuropeanPatent Office to maintain, in a stable, consistent andharmonious manner, the remarkably successful course which it haspursued since it was set up in 1977, and to meet the challengescurrently facing it, in the interest of Europe. The EuropeanPatent Organisation is an international organisation set up on 7October 1977 by the contracting states to the European PatentConvention (EPC), which was signed in Munich in 1973. TheOrganisation has a current total of 27 member states - all theEU members plus Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia,Hungary, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia,Switzerland and Turkey. Its task is to oversee the granting ofEuropean patents under the EPC by the European Patent Office,which is based in Munich. The EPO's Administrative Council, madeup of delegations from the member states, is the Organisation'slegislative body. It is responsible for policy matters andsupervises the activities of the Office. For further informationplease contact: EPO/OEB/EPA Rainer Osterwalder Press OfficerPhone: +4989/23 99 50 12 Fax: +4989/23 99 28 50 e-mail:rosterwalder@epo.org http://www.european-patent-office.org

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