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New Chief Executive for Patent Office
Added: (Fri Oct 31 2003)
31 October 2003
NEWS RELEASE
………………………………………………………………
NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE FOR
THE PATENT OFFICE
Ron Marchant has been appointed as the new Chief Executive of the Patent Office. Ron will take up the post on 2 January 2004, having been Director of Patents at the Patent Office since 1992. Ron had to beat stiff competition from external candidates from other Government departments and the private sector. Alison Brimelow, the out-going Chief Executive, made the announcement today and will stand down at the end of December 2003.
Ron said: “The Patent Office has a crucial role to play in the innovation culture which this Government fosters. The DTI’s Innovation Review will soon task the Patent Office to support the UK’s knowledge-based economy. We must not only provide services to customers, but be at the heart of policy on intellectual property, working with colleagues elsewhere in Government and at European and international meetings, as well as raising awareness of the pivotal role intellectual property can play for businesses.”
Lord Sainsbury, Minister for Science & Innovation said: “The provision of timely, cost-effective, legally-certain and enforceable intellectual property rights to its customers has made the Patent Office world class. But ever-changing policy on intellectual property in the European and international arenas means that the Patent Office can never afford to be complacent nor stand still.
“I congratulate the new Chief Executive on his success and wish him well in his new role.”
In the interim, day to day responsibility for the Patents Directorate will pass to Ron’s two deputies, Divisional Directors Peter Hayward and Sean Dennehey, whilst a successor is recruited through open competition.
Alison Brimelow is also pleased to welcome back Robin Webb, who is to return to the Patent Office as Director of Trade Marks & Designs. Robin is currently Head of Budget Planning at the National Assembly for Wales, and was a senior Policy Advisor at the Patent Office from 2000 to 2002.
Robin Webb said: “I am very much looking forward to returning to the Patent Office. Trade marks and designs are more important now than they have ever been, as the value of brands continues to grow. For many companies they are worth more than all their tangible assets. By the same token it is more important than ever that the registries continue to deserve their reputation for efficiency, and that we are responsive to the changing needs and strategies of customers, and to the consequences of changes in the law and the wider economy.”
Alison Brimelow was Director of Trade Marks from 1993 to 1997, so she knows what the job involves.
“Robin will be running a Trade Marks Registry which processes applications faster than any other registry I know, and examines applications to a very high standard. The next challenge for the Office will be to see how we can assist the owners of these rights to enforce them against counterfeiters. This will involve dialogue with rights owners, and education for Trading Standards Officers,” she said.
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Further information on patents, trade marks, copyright and design registrations, is available at www.patent.gov.uk or via The Patent Office Central Enquiry Unit on 08459 500505.
Issued by Prowse & Co on behalf of The Patent Office
For more information please contact Deborah Fields / Vicki Fletcher on +44 (0)1372 363 386 or e-mail deborah@prowse.co.uk / vicki@prowse.co.uk.
Notes to Editors
1. Ron joined the Patent Office in 1969 with a degree in chemistry to work as a patent examiner. Having helped to introduce IT systems to the Office during the 1980s, Ron was made a Deputy Director in 1990, at the time when the Office was planning its move from London to South Wales. He was made Director of Patents in 1992. His recent work has focussed on negotiations with other Patent Offices to share best practice and to mutually exploit each other’s work on processing patent applications as a means to reduce duplication of effort and so speed up delivery of services to customers.
2. Under Ron’s leadership the Patents Directorate recently gained ISO 9001:2000 accreditation for the quality management of its pre-grant patent processing. More details on this world-class award, achieved by no other patent office to date, can be seen at: http://www.patent.gov.uk/media/pressrelease/2003/0703.htm
3. Robin Webb joined the Civil Service in 1989, having previously been a teacher. He has spent most of his career in the DTI, with spells in the Cabinet Office, the National Assembly for Wales, and doing an MBA at Imperial College. He joined the Patent Office in 2000, where his responsibilities have included negotiating the initial phase of an EC Directive on patenting software, and acting as Secretary to the Intellectual Property Advisory Committee.
4. The Patent Office is based in Newport, South Wales, having moved from London in 1991. Almost half of the Patent Office's 1,000 staff work in the Patents Directorate, some 250 of whom are patent examiners. It is an Executive Agency of the DTI, operating as a Trading Fund, run entirely on its own revenue and returning 6% on capital p.a. The Patent Office also has premises in London (Harmsworth House, Bouverie Street) and a file-store at Nine Mile Point, Cwmfelinfach.
5. The latest Patent Office Annual Report is available from their web site: http://www.patent.gov.uk/about/reports/index.htm
6. During 2002 the Patent Office:
o Received 29,911 patent applications (of which 20,196 originated from the UK)
o Searched* around 17,400 patent applications
o Published 13,562 patent applications
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New CEO
o Examined* around 12,000 patent applications, and
o Granted 8,693 patents (of which 3,310 originated in the UK)
o Received trade mark applications amounting to 80,268 classes (of which 51,399 originated from the UK)
o Registered trade mark applications amounting to 74,071 classes (of which 42,800 originated from the UK)
o Heard 1,801 ex parte trade mark Hearings; 198 trade mark Hearings; and 43 revocation/invalidity trade mark Hearings
o Registered 9,192 designs (of which 4,395 originated in the UK).
*Applications are 'searched' by checking databases to see if there are any similar earlier inventions which show that an application is not new; and 'examined' (scrutinized) to check that the application meets the legal and technical requirements of the Patents Act 1977