Mr. Pierre Buffet – IPI Award Recipient 2006

(Source – PIUG Newsletter, March 2006)

M. Pierre Buffet, Executive Vice President at Questel.Orbit, is being honored as the recipient of the International Patent Information IPI-Award 2006.

The news was heard by over 300 information professionals attending the recent International Patent Information Conference & Exposition, IPI-ConfEx 2006, in Athens, Greece on March 6th. 

The venue for the presentation ceremony was the Old Stables Taverna in the beautiful Attica countryside outside Athens.  Presiding over the event were members of the IPI-Award Selection Board.  Those present were Mr. Ford Khorsandian (founder of the Award), Mrs. Minoo Philipp, Dr. Ursula Schoch-Gruebler, Mr. Aalt van de Kuilen and IPI-Award Board Chairman, Dr. Ian Sinclair.

M. Buffet’s achievements were highly praised, particularly his contribution in facilitating cooperation among many parties worldwide (for example, as a driving force behind Markush Darc, and in influencing EPO policy with Epoque).  In the words of IPI Selection Board Member, Dr. Sandra Unger, “His influence has left lasting heritage in the tools that we use.”  

The audience enthusiastically greeted the announcement with applause and was delighted to hear the comments of Prof. Georg Schulteiss spealking on behalf of M. Jean Besson and M. Charles Besson, CEO of Questel.Orbit.  Messages from patent information associations around the world congratulated M. Buffet.  It was summed up in a message from Suzanne Robins of the PIUG saying: “Your contribution to patent information over a 30-year career, and your dedicated collaboration with different organizations in pursuing visionary goals for the future of patent information, are indeed milestones in the evolution of patent information science.” 

Click here for a full transcript of the IPI-Award Announcement made during the International Patent Information Conference & Exposition, IPI-ConfEx 2006, Athens, Greece on March 6th 2006.  Includes biographical highlights of M. Buffet’s career.

Click here for a full transcript of IPI-Award Evening Presentation Ceremony on March 6th 2006 at the Old Stables Taverna, Athens, Greece.  Includes full transcripts of the ceremony and M. Buffet’s acceptance speech, plus messages of congratulations from patent offices and user groups.

Click here for Photo Gallery of the IPI-Award 2006 Presentation Ceremony held March 6th 2006 at the Old Stables Taverna.

Relationship Builder Across Organizations and Countries:

Pierre Buffet received a degree in Engineering in Informatics in 1969.  He worked for the Operational Research group of the French Navy before beginning his career in the electronic information industry over 30 years ago.  He served as Head of the CNRS Documentation Center’s Computer Department, where he established the Pascal System.  This gave him the opportunity to build international relationships through cooperation in the field of STM around ICSTI, the International Council of Scientific & Technical Information.

Early on, M. Buffet worked with INPI, and subsequently with the European Patent Office and the World Intellectual Property Organisation, to build and offer the online databases of these Patent & Trademark Offices.

In 1978 M. Buffet co-founded Questel and served as Database Manager.  He was the Questel representative who initiated technical discussions with Derwent for loading and serving the Derwent World Patents Index file in early 1984 and has been a major contributor to the cooperation between Derwent, INPI and Questel aimed at developing the Markush service.

The next milestone has been his major contribution to the development of the famous EPOQUE system in close cooperation with the EPO in The Hague. 

In parallel, he has been in permanent contact with the Japanese community, including the Japanese Patent Office.  He is also an active participant to working groups or trade associations like the Patent Documentation Group, WON, PIUG and PATCOM (executive committee member), as well as the former OLPI (Online Patent Information Group) set up by WIPO. 

Beyond the numerous papers he has written, he is a programme committee member of the ICIC and a Trustee of the Chemical Structure Association Trust.  Previously, he served for 10 years as Associate Editor of the ACS Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences and has been President of Eusidic, the European Association of Information Services, for three years.

Pierre Buffet’s many achievements demonstrate his mastery of the principles of information and his life of dedicated service to the information community.  An excellent teacher, he is always supporting others, creating networks among professionals worldwide, and putting efforts in cooperation with the permanent aim to build value and quality.  It is this work ethic that has been of so much benefit to the information users and the companies which he has served.  Is it any wonder why many people around the world refer to Pierre Buffet as “Mr. Questel”.  He continues his career at Questel.Orbit today as Executive Vice President in charge of strategic issues.

The nomination for Pierre Buffet was put forward by M. Jean Besson of Questel Orbit and seconded by:  Mr. Henk Tomas (Akzo Nobel), Dr. Lilliane Meyers (former head of the EPO Vienna Office), Mr. Peter Rusch (Information consultant, formerly with Dialog), Mr. Michael Lipp (Thomson Scientific), Dr. Brian Gore (Thomson Scientific) and Prof. George Schulteiss (Information consultant, and former CEO of FIZ Karlsruhe).

Anyone wishing to send a congratulatory message to Mr. Buffet may contact Trudi Jones, trudi@IPI-Institute.com , and the greeting will be forwarded

Award Background and Philosophy

The International Patent Information (IPI) Award is sponsored by Technology & Patent Research (TPR) International Inc.  The IPI-Award selection process is presided over by a Board of eminent patent information industry professionals representing Europe, the United States and Japan.  The IPI-Award consists of a plaque and an honorarium of $3000.

Ford Khorsandian, President of TPR, explains: "The International Patent Information Award has been established to pay tribute to one individual each year who, through their career as a dedicated patent information professional, has made a significant positive impact on patent information.  It is intended to highlight the patent information profession in general and how the profession is valued by others.  The Award is made on an international level and has been set up to represent the pinnacle of achievement in the patent information profession.  Now marking five years since its inception, the IPI-Award Hall of Fame is an impressive who's who in patent information.  We celebrate these pioneers and learn from their experiences."

From its base in San Diego, California, TPR International specializes in in-depth searching of both patent and non-patent information through online databases, manual searching of document collections worldwide, and provides patent intelligence services to multi-national R&D based corporations and patent law firms.  For more information, visit http://www.TPRInternational.com

For further information on the IPI-Award, or the specialist patent information conference and exposition, IPI-ConfEx (http://www.IPI-ConfEx.com), which takes place in Europe every March, contact: Trudi Jones, Trudi@IPI-Institute.com or searches@TPRInternational.com, +1(858)592 9084.  

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