Mr. Wolfgang Pilch IPI Award Recipient 2002
(Source PIUG Discussion List, April 2002)
Mr. Wolfgang Pilch, former Technical Director of INPADOC and the person most closely attributed with founding and developing the INPADOC patent family database, is being honored as the recipient of the 'International Patent Information (IPI) Award' 2002.
The news was
heard by over 280 information professionals attending an outdoor luncheon at
the Patent Information Users Group (PIUG) Annual Conference in Berkeley,
California, on April 22nd, 2002. The
announcement was made by Ms. Lucy Akers, representative of the IPI Award
Selection Board and Chairperson of the PIUG.
The IPI Board is an international body responsible for reviewing the
nominations. Ms. Akers praised the
achievements of Mr. Pilch, remarking that: "In the late '70's, the
technical leadership required to develop information systems was
formidable. It was the convergence of
this candidate's inspirational leadership, technical mastery and detailed
understanding of the subject domain that was key to his pioneering
developments." The audience
enthusiastically greeted the announcement with applause and was delighted to
hear the comments of Mr. Pilch himself via a live telephone link-up from his
home in Austria.
Father of the Patent Family
Mr. Pilchs early recognition of the importance of
global patent information and the efforts he made to collect source data from
the patent offices of the world and coordinate it into a patent family system
have been of great benefit to patent information users around the world for
decades. The INPADOC database remains a
valuable tool and has also served as the foundation for new databases. This file has saved patent information users
literally thousands of hours in finding family equivalents. He recognized a big problem and developed a
wonderful solution!
It all started in 1972 when the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) selected the Austrian Patent Offices bid to
become an international patent documentation center. In his role as Technical Director of the newly founded INPADOC,
Wolfgang Pilch oversaw the creation of the bibliographic patent database, which
was updated by regular deliveries from patent offices and institutions from all
continents. Through his efforts, Mr.
Pilch was responsible for developing the INPADOC patent family service, as well
as special programs such as a tool to query the Kanji-based PATOLIS database
and to derive the answers in plain English.
In 1991, INPADOC was incorporated in the European
Patent Office, which based its EPIDOS product line on the services of the
former INPADOC. Mr. Pilch became
Director in the Vienna sub-office of the European Patent Office. Five years later he went back to the
Austrian Patent office where he is today involved in special projects.
Mr. Koh Ishii, the IPI Board Member from Japan,
congratulated Mr. Pilch on behalf of the Selection Board and the conference
attendees. Mr. Pilch addressed the PIUG
audience: "Thank you for this
announcement. I am really moved. It is really an honor for me that the
INPADOC services, which were the product of a common Austrian effort, have
become recognized by such a committee of experts. In the 1970's my colleagues and I had a wonderful time in
developing and implementing these services.
We became acquainted with experts in patent offices on all continents
who were willing to send the data of their respective offices, and we found a
spirit of cooperation among patent information experts worldwide."
Mr. Pilchs nomination was put forward by Harry
Allcock and seconded by Jim Terragno, Ursula Schoch-Gruebler and Peter
Rusch. Mr. Allcock and Mr. Rusch were
present at the announcement and personally congratulated Mr. Pilch. The presentation of the IPI Award to Mr.
Pilch will take place later this year at a ceremony to be held in Europe.
Anyone wishing to send congratulatory messages to Mr.
Pilch may do so by forwarding their greetings to Trudi Jones, searches@TPRInternational.com
Click here for a full transcript
of the announcement made at the PIUG Annual Conference, including Mr. Pilchs
remarks.
Click here for a report of the
presentation ceremony to Mr. Pilch made at the European Patent Offices EPIDOS
Annual Conference 2002, including Mr. Pilchs remarks.
Award Background and Philosophy
The 'International Patent Information Award' is sponsored by Technology & Patent Research (TPR) International Inc., and 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 $2500.
"The IPI Award was established to recognize
those dedicated individuals who, through their hard work, professional
excellence and personal leadership, have made a significant positive impact on
the Patent Information Industry and the Patent Information Profession," explained
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 online, manual searching of document collections held worldwide,
and provides patent intelligence services to multi-national R&D based
corporations and patent law firms.
Use back key to go to previous page