Michal Hackmey, the chairperson of the Association of Patent Attorneys in Israel (AIPI) has sent a letter to the Minister of Justice recommending that the contract of Dr. Meir Noam, the current Commissioner of Patents for a further term of office.
As my colleague, and Israel Patent Office Veteran, Shimon Shalit puts it:
“The present Commissioner is somewhat unique in that, apart from his legal qualification, he also has a doctorate in Chemistry and has practiced as a Patent Attorney and IP lawyer. As such he understands the intricacies of patents and the needs of IP rights holders.
In addition he has proved a successful administrator. In my opinion, he has gone a long, long way further than any other Commissioner in building up the IPO, getting patent applications examined, improving the quality of the examination and getting decisions out.
Implementation of the Madrid Protocol is still stuck, but I do not think anyone else would have done better. This in itself is a good reason for Dr. Noam to continue and get it through. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen many results on the legislative front so far, either in overdue patent legislation e.g. automatic publication 18 months from priority which had a first reading last year, or in revising the antiquated Patents Rules or the outdated Designs legislation. Committees that were set up to discuss these issues twenty years ago have long-since provided their recommendations but I do not know where these are stuck. The Justice Ministry took it out of the hands of the Commissioner quite a few years back.
Despite being critical of the odd decision by the Israel Patent Office, we totally concur that the Israel Patent Office is in very good hands.
Is it AIPI or AIPA? You seem inconsistent. See posting on event with Matthew Bryant
Dyslexic; I don’t get their mailings so am not sure. The organization’s official name is in Hebrew, and אגודת עורכי פטנטים בישראל
Acronymously,
Michael