John Bambridge

European Patent Office, The Netherlands

Having graduated from Imperial College, London, where he read Mathematics, John Bambridge joined the European Patent Office in 1981. After three years as a search examiner in The Hague and two years as a substantive examiner in Munich, John Bambridge moved to Information Services to set up the helpdesk for examiners. In 1990, he joined the Controlling Office within the EPO, where he was responsible for the control of Automation Expenditure and Planning.

In 1994 he moved back to Information Services where he initially managed the EPO's transition to a paperless document management system and from 1999 untl 2007, he was responsible for the EPO's e-business initiative epoline®. In March 2007, he was appointed Principal Director for Patent Grant Automation and is responsible for the documentation of the EPO as well as the automation support for examiners and support staff.