Oh, patents! The 2017 EPO award winners

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The 2017 winners of the EPO awards in six categories were announced this day in Venice, Italy, on the occasion of a grand celebration and event.

Industry category

Jan van den Boogaart and Oliver Hayden (Netherland and Austria), inventors of rapid malaria blood testing, an invention disclosed in:

•  EP2635695 (A1) ― 2013-09-11  titled Method for detecting a plasmodium infection.

Research category

Laurent Lestarquit, José Ángel Ávila Rodríguez and team (France and Spain), inventors of better radio signals for satellite navigation, an invention disclosed in:

• EP1570287 (B1) ― 2006-05-03 - Method and device for generating a constant envelope navigation signal with four independent codes
• EP1836778 (B1) ― 2009-08-05 - Spread spectrum signal

Small and medium enterprise category

Günter Hufschmid (Germany), inventor of a super sponge for oil spills, an invention disclosed in: 

• EP2392630 (B1) ― 2015-12-02  - Spray products from polymers (hydrocarbons) in the form of a fibrously matted polymer wool, production as well as their use as an oil binding agent and chemical binding agent, as adsorption products for oils, oil rubbish and other hydrophobic liquids to the cleaning of water, rivers, lakes and seas, sand or earth 

Non-EPO country category

James G. Fujimoto, Eric A. Swanson and Robert Huber (USA, Japan), inventors of medical imaging with optical coherence tomography (OCT), disclosed in:

• EP0883793 (B1) ― 2007-11-14 - Method and apparatus for performing optical measurements using a fiber optic imaging guidewire, catheter or endoscope
• EP0981733 (B1) ― 2004-02-11 - Grating based phase control optical delay line
• EP1839375 (B1) ― 2014-06-04 - Mode locking methods and apparatus

Life-time achievement category

Rino Rappuoli (Italy), inventor of next-generation vaccines against meningitis, whooping cough and other infections, an invention disclosed in many patents, including though not limited to:

• EP0322533 (A1) ― 1989-07-05 - Bordetella pertussis toxin with altered toxicity
• EP0232229 (A2) ― 1987-08-12 - Cloning and expression of Bordetella pertussis toxin-encoding DNA
• EP1223975 (A2) ― 2002-07-24 - Mucosal dtpa vaccines

Popular vote category

Adnane Remmal (Morocco), inventor of a way to boost the efficacy of antibiotics with essential oils, an invention disclosed in:

• EP1879655 (B1) ― 2014-11-26 - Pharmaceutical composition comprising an anti-bacterial agent and an active ingredient selected from carveol, carvacrol, alpha-ionone, beta-ionone, and thymol   

Congratulations to all!