Patents on the soles of your shoes...: 2015 EPO Awards

Saturday, June 6, 2015

This year’s panel of 13 jurors shines with the inclusion of 6 women (4 more than usual), including in particular:

Anna Haupt, a young woman inventor, nominated as finalist in 2014 for the EPO Inventor Awards for an inflatable bike helmet
Ingeborg Hochmair, also nominated as finalist in 2014 for the EPO Lifetime Achievement Award for the cochlear implant
Mandy Haberman, the well known British inventor of the Haberman® feeder and Anywayup® cup (also known as the ubiquitous “sippy cup”…), also nominated British Woman Inventor of the Year 2000
Christine Van Broeckhoven, winner of the 2011 EPO Inventor Award in the Research category for the identification of genes and proteins with a role in neurodegenerative diseases of the brain (e.g.; Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)
Clara Gaymar, CEO and President of GE France since 2006
Ayse Odman Boztosun, Member of the Faculty of Law of the University of Antalya, Turkey, Member of the EPO Economic and Scientific Advisory board (ESAB)

On the gentlemen’s side of the jury, two inventors -- of a very famous cube, and very famous shoe soles:

Ernö Rubik and his eponymous and globally known invention “Rubik’s cube”.
Mario Moretti Polegato –Inventor of “holey shoes”, that is, the vapour-permeable soles of the GEOX® Amphibiox shoes

And a panel of eminent business executives, academics, and government-appointed officials.

Tony Tangena, Senior Vice-President at Phillips, responsible for Phillips IP, and now President of epi, an organization representing 10,000 European patent attorneys
Tian Lipu, Commissioner of China’s patent office (SIPO), from 2005 to 2014
Wolfgang H. Hecki, Director General of the Deutsches Museums in Munich, Professor of experimental physics and nanotachnology at the Technical University of Munich, plus many more accolades.
Gerhard Cromme, Chairman of the Siemens A.G. Supervisory Board
Louis Schweitzer, Chair of the EPO Jury. Former, and current Honorary, President of Renault S.A. Investment Commissioner appointed by the President of France