Quality Manager
European Patent Office
The Hague, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
Branko Bufacchi was born in Cape Town in 1956, and holds a B.Sc Eng. (Bath 1977) and M.Sc Air Transport Eng. (Cranfield 1979). Starting his career in 1977 at GEC Turbine Generators in Rugby, UK, he moved to the South African and Italian aircraft industries and gained experience in design and project work as a flight stabilty and control engineer. Leaving the aircraft world, he joined the European Patent Office (EPO) in 1991 as a Patent Examiner. Like all EPO examiners he worked in English, French and German. He specialised in the field of automotive control systems, in particular hybrid vehicle technology. His interest in knowledge sharing and interdisciplinary projects helped him set up an inter-office Hybrid Vehicle Team with the USPTO and the Japanese Patent Office to develop collaborative tools and methods for searching and examing patent applications in that field. He volunteered and helped manage a project to assess patent search quality in the Vehicles sector, which led to the current EPO methodology for assessing search quality.In 2004 he was selected to join the new Quality Management Department, and obtained Prince 2 project manager accreditation. He delivered strategic projects including the certification of the EPO under the ISO 9001 QMS standard in 2014. He was then appointed quality manager and currently works within the EPO quality management team to ensure that the QMS is maintained and improved, enabling the EPO to build on it's leading position in the patent world. His main professional interest is fostering intercultural and interdepartmental co-operation to ensure that optimal services are provided to internal and external parties.
Tuesday, May 21
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM