Born in Reims (France) on 30 October 1937, Jacques Michel has been Vice President of the European Patent Office since 1st January 1987. Apart from his role within the management committee, he is more specifically responsible for Directorate General 1 composed of about 2,000 people, about half of the staff strength of the Office. The Directorate deals now with the total European procedure from the filing to the grant, including the opposition. A special role of DG 1 is the patentability search for more than 170,000 applications per year. More than 60% of all the PCT applications filed in the world are searched by the EPO. A comprehensive programme of automation presently fully operational has been implemented. It deals with the electronic search tool that make possible a full paperless search. It deals also with the information system controlling the administration of the procedure (epoline: e.filing, e.processing).
From 1971 to 1984, Jacques Michel held various posts in the
French Secretariat of State for Research (Prime Minister) and
the Ministry of Industry, in connection with problems of scientific
and technological information. At the international level Monsieur
Michel was responsible for representing France at all international
gatherings at which relevant problems were under discussion (UNESCO,
OECD, EC, etc). In January 1981, he was appointed to the management
of the Science and Technology Documentation Centre of the CNRS
and given the mission of opening it up to the outside world and
more specifically to the world of industry. From September 1984
to December 1987, Monsieur Michel was responsible for the management
of QUESTEL a major database provider within the France Telecom
Group and that of its American subsidy, QUESTEL Inc.
Before 1971, Jacques Michel worked as Assistant and then Senior
Assistant at the Science Faculty of Paris-Orsay. In 1968 he was
appointed Science Attaché to the French Embassy to the
United States of America (Washington) where he concentrated on
monitoring the fields of chemistry, materials, environment, nuclear
technology and scientific and technological information. He has
a doctorate in Physical Science.