Since July 2010, Benoît Battistelli
has been President of the European Patent Office, an international organisation
with 38 member states, comprising all the members of the European Union, plus a
number of further countries, including Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and several
Southeast European states which have yet to join the EU.
Mr Battistelli, a French national
born in Paris on 12 July 1950, is married with three children.
A graduate of the Paris Institute of
Political Studies (IEP) and the National School of Administration (ENA),
Mr Battistelli began his career as a senior civil servant in the French
Ministry of the Economy and Finance. He held various positions in the
Directorate-General for Competition and Consumer Affairs and the Directorate of
External Economic Relations at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, where
he served, in particular, as Trade Commissioner to Poland, Italy, India and
Turkey.
In 1997, Mr Battistelli was appointed
Regional Director for Foreign Trade for the
Ile-de-France region. In 1999, he became director with responsibility for
innovation, competitiveness and industrial property policy at the Ministry of
the Economy, Finance and Industry. Mr Battistelli acted as Chief Advisor
to Nicole Fontaine (President of the European Parliament from July 1999 to
January 2002 and Minister for Industry in the French government from
June 2002 to May 2004), before being appointed Director General of
the French National Institute for Industrial Property (INPI) in May 2004.
Mr Battistelli also chaired the
Supervisory Board of the European Patent Academy from July 2005 to July 2008
and held the position of Chairman of the Administrative Council of the European
Patent Organisation from March 2009 to June 2010, after serving as
the Council's Deputy Chairman from December 2006 to March 2009.
Mr Battistelli plays an active role
in public and community life. He was the deputy mayor of Saint-Germain-en-Laye
from 2008 to 2014, and is now on the City Council there.
In 2013, Mr Battistelli received the
title of Professor honoris causa from Renmin University of China, Beijing, and
in 2014 he received an honorary doctorate in economics from the Menéndez Pelayo
University in Santander.
