EPO Oscars! The European Inventor Awards

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann Every year since 2006, the EPO organizes and juries the European Inventor Awards! This year, the awards ceremony will take place on May 28, in The Netherlands, the country which currently presides the European Union. On this date the EPO will select 5 winners, among 15 finalists, in 5 categories: Industry, Small & Medium-sized enterprises, Research, Non-European Patent Organization countries, and Life-time achievement. You can attend the Awards ceremony in 2015, if you register on time. The deadline for registering for the 2014 Awards ceremony was May 3, 2013. … But that might be a bit expensive anyhow, so you can also watch a broadcast of the Awards Ceremony event, in the convenience of your home, at the EPO website. In the interim, you can nominate inventors or inventions for the 2014 awards before Sept. 30, 2013, and join the 4000 EPO patent examiners, who are asked to send in nominations. You can also vote directly for your favorite inventor or inventions among the finalists, and be the Popular Vote, joining the EPO jury composed of distinguished experts in the fields of politics, business, media, science, academia and research – including Ernö Rubik, the inventor of the famous cube puzzle! Now that you are initiated to the world of patents, this is a great place and time to exercise your Patent Apprentice rights! There are few national boundaries in the world of patents as you know, so voting in Europe is a nice extension of your rights to universal suffrage! And if there were a Drop Box for suggestions perhaps that we could suggest a sixth category for Patents with humanitarian impact... and a seventh category for Young Inventors with the most promissing ideas that will revolutionize the world.... and an eighth category for the still under-represented feminine voices that will solve the world's most intractable problems.... Just dreaming… In the next few posts, you will discover some of the EPO Oscars past, and in competition for the 2013 Awards.