Sunday, June 22, 2014

Winners of the 2014 European Patent awards

Copyright © Françoise Herrrmann


The 2014 stellar line-up of winners of the European Patent Awards include the following 5 inventions:


-          The QR (Quick Response) Code, in the popular category, awarded to Masahiro Hara, Takayuki Nagaya et. al. (Japan). (See earlier posts about the QR code invention June 1, 2014 and June 5, 2014).

-          3D printing, in the non-European Patent Organization category ,awarded to Charles W. Hull (USA) (See earlier posts about various types of 3D printing: construction 3D October 31, 2013 and human tissue and organ 3D printing February 8, 2013, …).

-          Quick DNA testing, in the research category, awarded to Christopher Toumazou (UK).

-          An water purifying system based on the principle of osmosis with  aquaporin water transport molecules, reconstituted in a "coffee-filter" type filtration membrane, that does not require the expenditure of energy to make it work, in the small and medium enterprise category, awarded to Peter Holme Jensen, Claus Hélix-Nielsen and Danielle Keller (Denmark).

-          A new effective tuberculosis (TB) drug in the industry category awarded to Koen Andries (Belgium) and Gérome Guillemont et al. (France). (See  earlier post on the occasion of World TB day and the problems of multiple drug resistance on March 28, 2014).

And one life-time achievement award to Arthur Fischer (Germany) for the “fischer expansion plug” used in construction, and in recognition of his 1100 additional patent applications filed during a career as a very prolific inventor.

FYI... below you will find a short video presenting the distinguished panel of 8 jurors for the awards!


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Next year, in June 2015, the European Patent Awards will be held in Paris!
In the interim, lots more patents, on the soles of your shoes… and elsewhere, everywhere!

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