Eli Lilly and Company v. Canada (ICSID Case No. UNCT/14/2), Witness Statement of Michael Gilen (January 26, 2015)
1. Background and Qualifications
1. My name is Dr. Michael Gillen. I reside in Ottawa, Ontario, and I am a former federal public servant, having worked for the Canadian Patent Office1 from 1988 until my retirement in June, 2014. I have a background in organic chemistry and more than 25 years of experience at the Patent Office, where I held various positions including those of senior patent examiner and Chair of the Patent Appeal Board. At the time of my retirement, I was Chief of the Biotechnology Division in the Patent Branch2 of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office ("CIPO").
2. I completed a Bachelor of Science in Honours Chemistry at St. Francis Xavier University in 1975, and a Doctorate in Organic Chemistry at McGill University in 1980. After leaving McGill, I worked from 1980 to 1983 as a chemist for a private biotechnology company in Ottawa, where I conducted research on gene synthesis, including an automated process that used a "gene machine" to synthesize long chain polynucleotides. From 1984 to 1988, I was a Research Associate at the Institute of Biological Sciences at the National Research Cow1cil of Canada in Ottawa, where I worked as a molecular biologist investigating liver cancer.
3. In 1988, I joined the Patent Office as a patent examiner. I underwent 2 years of mandatory training, which included classroom study of the Patent Act and Patent Rules, Patent Office practice and patent-related jurisprudence, and on-the-job training conducting patent examinations under the guidance of a senior patent examiner. In 1990, I was promoted to the "working level" and began exan1ining patent applications without the assistance of a senior patent examiner. As an exan1iner (from 1988 to 1992) and senior exan1iner (from 1992 to 2002), I examined approximately 3000 patent applications for inventions such as geneticall y engineered micro-organisms, synthetic genes and pharmaceuticals. While I was a senior patent examiner, I also acted as an on-the-job trainer for 10 newly hired examiners who were completing the 2 year-mandatory training program.