Joly Dixon to head SABIP

The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) has just announced that the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property (SABIP) has its first chairman: Joly Dixon, CMG. According to the news flash,

"Joly Dixon has worked extensively in the public sector promoting well researched economic policy making. He spent most of his professional life in the European Commission where he was Jacques Delors' economic adviser and later Director for international economic affairs. He also served as Deputy Special Representative in the UN's mission to Kosovo and played a leading role in fiscal reform in Bosnia. Joly currently has part time assignments with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the IPO. He is a Statistics Commissioner and chairs the Fiscal Policy Panel in Jersey.

Joly's appointment will be for an initial period of 2 years and he will be paid £20,000 p.a.".

The IPKat congratulates Joly on his appointment and wonders whether his experiences in war-torn Kosovo and Bosnia will come in handy when it comes to hand-to-hand combat with Cliff Richard or making peace between the pro- and anti-software patent lobbyists. Merpel says, thank goodness they haven't appointed anyone who can claim to be an expert in IP: there's at least a sporting chance that he'll believe what he reads on this weblog. Tufty sagely offers some advice to foreigners: CMG is not an unpronounceable surname -- it's an honour accorded to public servants. It means that he is a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George. St Michael is a formerly successful trade mark; St George is a formerly successful saint, whose feast day was demoted to 'optional' status by the Catholic Church in the previous century.