{{Short description|British civil servant}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2014}} {{EngvarB|date=April 2014}} '''Alison Jane Brimelow''' CBE (born 1949<ref name="cv">European Patent Office web site, [http://www.epo.org/about-us/press/backgrounders/brimelow-cv.html ''Alison Brimelow's CV'']. Consulted on 2 July 2007. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926220424/http://www.epo.org/about-us/press/backgrounders/brimelow-cv.html |date=26 September 2007 }}</ref>) is a British civil servant and former chief executive and Comptroller General of the UK Patent Office, now known as the Intellectual Property Office. She was the fifth President of the European Patent Office, a position she held from 1 July 2007<ref name="UKPO">{{cite news|title=Alison Brimelow to be President of the European Patent Office|publisher=United Kingdom Patent Office|date=30 October 2003|url=http://www.patent.gov.uk/media/pressrelease/2003/3010.htm |access-date=5 August 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20031205035245/http://www.patent.gov.uk/media/pressrelease/2003/3010.htm |archive-date = 5 December 2003}} (archived on archive.org)</ref> to 30 June 2010.
== Early life and education ==
Born in Havana, Cuba, she is one of the two daughters of Sir Thomas Brimelow, a British diplomat, who was Permanent Under-Secretary in the British Foreign Office in 1973–75 and Member of the European Parliament in 1977–78, and Jean Cull.<ref name="UKPO"/><ref>Thomson Gale, ''The Blue Book: Leaders of the English-speaking World'', 1976, St. James Press, St. Martins Press, p. 93.</ref><ref>Tam Dalyell, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-lord-brimelow-1594696.html ''Obituary: Lord Brimelow''], The Independent, 4 August 1995.</ref> She holds a degree from the University of East Anglia.<ref name="cv"/>
== Career ==
She joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1973.<ref name="cv"/> In 1976, she joined the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). She worked in a variety of Headquarters policy jobs, including private office. She joined the Patent Office in 1991, where she became Head of the Trade Marks Registry.<ref name="cv"/>
In 1997 she returned to DTI Headquarters to work on European and International Competition Policy.<ref name="cv"/> She was appointed chief executive and Comptroller General of the Patent Office in March 1999.<ref name="cv"/> She held the post of chief executive and Comptroller General of the Patent Office from March 1999 to end of December 2003.<ref name="cv"/>
In 2003 she was elected President of the European Patent Office jointly with Professor Alain Pompidou of France. She resigned from the UK Civil Service on 31 December 2003.<ref name="cv"/> From 2003 to 2006, she was Deputy Chairman of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation.<ref name="cv"/>
From November 2004 to December 2006, she was Chair of the Steering Board of the National Weights and Measures Laboratory, a UK Government organisation.<ref name="cv"/> In February 2005 she was elected Associate Fellow of Templeton College, Saïd Business School, Oxford.<ref name="cv"/>
Her term of office as president of the European Patent Office (EPO) began on 1 July 2007.<ref>European Patent Office web site, [http://www.epo.org/focus/news/2007/20070629.html ''Alison Brimelow takes over as EPO President''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926220613/http://www.epo.org/focus/news/2007/20070629.html |date=26 September 2007 }}. Consulted on 2 July 2007.</ref> In May 2009, she informed the EPO staff that she would not seek an extension of her contract which ended on 30 June 2010.<ref>{{cite web |author=Emma Barraclough |url=http://www.managingip.com/Article/2198283/EPO-begins-search-for-new-president.html |title=EPO begins search for new president |date=11 May 2009 |quote=Alison Brimelow, president of the EPO, will not stand for a second term after her three-year contract expires at the end of June 2010. A spokesman for the EPO said that she had emailed her decision not to seek a renewal of her contract to the staff at the IP office.}}</ref> There were initially four candidates to succeed her, Susanne Ås Sivborg, Benoît Battistelli, Roland Grossenbacher, and Jesper Kongstad.<ref>EPO web site, [http://www.epo.org/topics/news/2009/20090917.html ''Applications received for the post of EPO President''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090922214859/http://www.epo.org/topics/news/2009/20090917.html |date=22 September 2009 }}, 17 September 2009. Consulted on 18 September 2009.</ref> In March 2010, it was then made known that she would be succeeded by Benoît Battistelli on 1 July 2010.<ref>EPO web site, [http://www.epo.org/topics/news/2010/20100301.html ''Benoît Battistelli elected EPO President''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100306140135/http://www.epo.org/topics/news/2010/20100301.html |date=6 March 2010 }}, News, 1 March 2010. Consulted on 2 March 2010.</ref>
In September 2010, Alison Brimelow took on the role of chairman of the Board of Trustees of Hartlebury Castle Preservation Trust.<ref>Charlie Crabtree, [http://www.kidderminstershuttle.co.uk/news/8365302.New_chairman_for_revamped_Hartlebury_Castle_trust/ "New chairman for revamped Hartlebury Castle trust"], Kidderminster Shuttle, 3 September 2010. Consulted on 17 September 2010.</ref><ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20101017143130/http://www.hartleburycastletrust.org/Latest_News.htm "Trust Moves Up A Gear"]}}, The Hartlebury Castle Preservation Trust, Latest News, 09/08/10. Consulted on 17 September 2010.</ref> In June 2011 she became Chairman of the Intellectual Property Institute.
== Honours == She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005, "for services to Intellectual Property Law."<ref name="CBE">Government News Network, [http://www.gnn.gov.uk/content/detail.asp?NavigatedFromSearch=True&NewsAreaID=2&ReleaseID=159281&print=true ''Prime Minister's Office (National), Queens Birthday Honours – Order of the British Empire, Civil Order of the British Empire''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927191916/http://www.gnn.gov.uk/content/detail.asp?NavigatedFromSearch=True&NewsAreaID=2&ReleaseID=159281&print=true |date=27 September 2007 }}, 11 June 2005</ref> In 2011, she was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (German: ''Grosses Bundesverdienstkreuz'').<ref>[http://www.epo.org/news-issues/news/2011/20110914.html German Order of Merit award for former EPO President Alison Brimelow] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110924034546/http://www.epo.org/news-issues/news/2011/20110914.html |date=24 September 2011 }}, EPO web site, 14 September 2011. Consulted on 23 September 2011.</ref><ref>[http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=421219&NewsAreaID=2 ''Award for Chair of Intellectual Property Institute''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111124225851/http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=421219&NewsAreaID=2 |date=24 November 2011 }}, News Distribution Service (NDS), UK government's Central Office of Information (COI), 14 September 2011. Consulted on 23 September 2011.</ref>
She is a member of the Athenaeum Club.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Further reading== * Anjana Ahuja, [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article1001655.ece ''An obstacle to the patently obvious'']{{dead link|date=February 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, The Times, 27 October 2003.
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20090614084431/http://www.epo.org/about-us/press/backgrounders/brimelow-cv.html Alison Brimelow's CV] at the European Patent Office, as archived in June 2009 by the Internet Archive
{{S-start}} {{s-intgov}} {{succession box|title=President of the European Patent Office|before=Alain Pompidou|after=Benoît Battistelli|years=2007–2010}} {{S-end}}
{{EPOPresident|state=uncollapsed}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brimelow, Alison}} Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:Members of HM Diplomatic Service Category:Civil servants in the Department of Trade and Industry Category:Civil servants in the Patent Office (United Kingdom) Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Alumni of the University of East Anglia Category:Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Category:Daughters of life peers Category:European Patent Organisation people Category:20th-century British civil servants Category:20th-century British women civil servants Category:21st-century British civil servants Category:20th-century British diplomats Category:21st-century British women civil servants