Dr. Jacques Michel – IPI Award Recipient 2004
(Source – PIUG Discussion List; IPI-Institute Discussion List; March 2004)
Dr. Jacques Michel, former Vice-President of the European Patent Office, is being honored as the recipient of the 'International Patent Information (IPI) Award' 2004.
The news was heard by over 270 patent information professionals attending a luncheon at the inaugural International Patent Information Conference & Exposition, IPI-ConfEx, on March 8th in Lisbon, Portugal. The announcement took place at the Hotel Altis, the elegant conference hotel in the heart of the financial district of Lisbon.
Presiding over the event were members of the IPI-Award Selection Board, an international body responsible for reviewing the nominations. The members of the Board were introduced by IPI-Award founder, Mr. Ford Khorsandian, who is also the President of Technology & Patent Research International, Inc., sponsors of the Award. The Board members present were Dr. Ian Sinclair of Pfizer, Ms. Lucy Akers of Akers & Co., Dr. Christoph Haxel of Henkel and Mr. Yutaka Wada of Patolis Corp.
Following a brief introduction by Ford Khorsandian, the name of the recipient for 2004 was jointly announced by Dr. Ian Sinclair (Chairman of the IPI-Award Board) and Ms. Lucy Akers (Chairperson of the Patent Information Users Group).
The IPI-Award Presentation Ceremony was held later the same evening at a special dinner event held at the beautiful Penha Longa resort outside of Lisbon, an IPI-ConfEx event generously sponsored by Thomson Scientific.
Mr. Pantelis Kyriakides, Vice President of Search & Examination at the European Patent Office, delivered a speech on behalf of Dr. Ingo Kober, President of the EPO. Mr. Kyriakides praised Dr. Michel for his outstanding contribution in developing data banks for the EPO to not only serve the needs of the examiners, but which also later benefited the broader patent information community. “Without you”, Mr. Kyriakides continues, “the EPO would not be what it is today.”
Following the presentation of the Award plaque to Dr. Michel by Ford Khorsandian and the members of the Selection Board, Dr. Michel paid tribute to his colleagues at the EPO, as well as the United States and Japanese Patent Offices, for their collaborative efforts. He acknowledged the strides made under the Trilateral Agreement and the massive undertaking of the “BACON” project to capture, in facsimile mode, patents published since the 1920’s. And from there, solutions were found for the exploitation, storage, retrieval and display of those data. “Having a clear idea of the tools to implement was like generating a mosaic, stone by stone, piece by piece, in trying to carefully guide the permanent evolution of the technology”, explained Dr. Michel. Dr. Michel went on to explain how the ongoing challenges of data handling and quality of searching at the EPO have been met through the exchange of views between examiners, applicants and user groups. This led to the design and implementation of espacenet, which took advantage of the rapid advances in technological capabilities, especially those afforded by the Internet.
Dr. Michel concluded by presenting his views on the respective roles of the patent offices and commercial information providers and how these should complement each other so that “patent professional people will have at their disposal tools which will enable them to express fully their expertise and talents, and so will contribute to the enhancement of the patent systems and patent activity throughout the world.”
These stories were very much enjoyed by the audience and can be enjoyed again by clicking on the link below to see a full transcript of the announcement proceedings.
Click here
for a report of the IPI-Award Announcement and Presentation Ceremony to Dr.
Jacques Michel made at the IPI-ConfEx Annual Conference, including full speech
transcripts and Dr. Michel’s acceptance speech, plus messages of
congratulations from patent offices and user groups.
Shaping the Patent Information
World
Jacques
Michel was born in Reims, studied for a doctorate in Physical Sciences at Paris
University and later was a senior assistant in the Science Faculty of
Paris-Orsay.
A
career in the world of international diplomacy beckoned as Jacques was
appointed Scientific Attaché to the French Embassy in Washington. This provided an early opportunity to
connect with people in the scientific information world – e.g. at the National
Library of Medicine and at Chemical Abstracts Service.
Jacques
held various positions at the Secretariat of State for Research and at the
Ministry of Industry, during which time he became involved in information
systems for managing scientific and technical information. Jacques gained much experience in multi-national
collaboration as he represented France at influential international gatherings
of organisations such as UNESCO, OECD and the EU. Among the various projects that Jacques directed were the
creation of an online information service (later to become Questel) and
chemical structure information management using the DARC system.
In
1981, Jacques was summoned to the Management of Science & Technology
Documentation Centre at CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
where, as Director, he was charged with creating external access for industry
to the Centre’s scientific documentation.
Questel
formally became part of Jacques’s life in the mid 1980s, during which time he
headed up the US arm of the organisation in Washington and then became managing
director of the Questel parent company in France.
Jacques
is not a person to rest on his laurels and the late 1980s saw him move to the
European Patent Office in The Hague to take up the position as Vice President
of Directorate General 1 where, under his leadership, the BACON project was implemented. BACON (BAckfile Conversion) resulted in the
creation of a unique worldwide collection of patent documents in bitmap
format. The trilateral co-operation
that Jacques helped engender between the EPO, the Japanese Patent Office and
the US Patent Office was central to developing the digital patent information
world we benefit from today.
At
the European Patent Office, Jacques also led the pioneering project that
designed, built and implemented a new process and system for patent
examination. The implementation of the
EPOQUE system and its underlying process has been a major break-through in
patent examination. Based on leading
edge search technology and navigation tools, EPOQUE is, ten years after its
introduction, in daily use by 4,000 patent examiners. At a time when many corporations in many industries were
struggling to realise the concept of the paperless office, EPOQUE delivered o
the vision of the paperless search process for the EPO.
And
from EPOQUE there came Espacenet, yet another very significant service
developed and implemented under Jacques’s leadership. Espacenet realises Jacques’s vision of more liberal approaches to
the dissemination of patent information, based on his belief that this is an
obligation for major patent offices like the EPO. He drove the change in information dissemination policy within
the EPO and realised the service we know today as Espacenet.
Jacques
Michel’s contributions have shaped large parts of the patent information
world. He has excelled as a policy maker,
consummate politician and diplomat.
Through his personal leadership, a range of information products and
policies have been implemented that have addressed issues such at tri-lateral
agreements, data conversion, quality, fulltext, more liberal approaches to the
dissemination of patent information.
Jacques Michel’s work has truly shaped the patent information world we
know today.
The
nomination of Jacques Michel was made by Pierre Buffet and seconded by Dr. Bill
Town, Mr. Tadashi Ishii, former Vice Commissioner of the Japanese Patent Office
and by Anne Girard, former Vice Director at the Institut Francais Du Petrole.
Anyone wishing to send a congratulatory message to Dr. Michel may reply to Trudi Jones, trudi@IPI-Institute.com , and the greeting will be forwarded.
Award Background and Philosophy
The International Patent Information (IPI) Award is presented in association with the International Patent Information (IPI) Institute and is sponsored by Technology & Patent Research (TPR) International Inc. The IPI-Award selection process is directed 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.
"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 IPI-Institute is an organization which builds upon this theme and has been formed to work alongside national patent information user groups and associations for the benefit of the profession. The Award is made on an international level and has been set up to represent the pinnacle of achievement in the patent information profession," explains Ford Khorsandian, President of TPR.
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 held worldwide, and provides patent searching services to multi-national R&D based corporations and patent law firms.
For further information on the
IPI-Award, the IPI-Institute or the specialist patent information conference
and exposition, IPI-ConfEx, which takes place in Europe each Spring,
contact: Trudi Jones, trudi@IPI-Institute.com;
+1 (858) 592 9084
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