Patents on the soles of your shoes...: The 2018 EPO Award Finalists

Each year, since 2006, the EPO (European Patent Office), selects 15 finalists in the 5 categories of Research, Industry, Small & Medium Enterprise, Non-member of the EPO and Lifetime Achievement.

A sixth popular award also exists where everyone, you and I included, might vote to select a winner among the 15 finalists. The rules are such that the popular voters may cast one vote each day, up to June 3, 2018 (this year).

All the winners, recipients of the awards in each of the six categories, are announced during the EPO Awards ceremony, which will take place on June 7^th, 2018, this year in Saint-Germain–en-Laye, in France. The winners will receive a trophy, traditionally locally crafted, and much publicity for their inventions.

The recently announced 2018 finalists introduced in the above video, and their groundbreaking patented inventions, in each of the five categories, are the following:

Industry

Erik Loopstra (Netherlands) and Vadim Banine (Netherlands/Russia): EUV lithography for smaller, more powerful microchips

EP2465012 (A1) ― 2012-06-20 - Lithographic apparatus and method
EP2480936 (A1) ― 2012-08-01 -Source collector apparatus, lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method
EP2170021 (A2) ― 2010-03-31- Source module, radiation source and lithographic apparatus

Gaute Munch, Erik Hansen and team (Denmark): LEGO programmable robots

EP1146941 (A1) ― 2001-10-24 - A remote-controlled toy
EP1148921 (A1) ― 2001-10-31- A programmable toy with communication means
EP2217341 (A1) ― 2010-08-18 - A toy construction system

Agnès Poulbot and Jacques Barraud† (France): Auto-regenerating tyre tread

EP2379352 (A1) ― 2011-10-26 - Tread with an improved drainage space

Research

Jens Frahm (Germany): Faster, real-time MRI

EP0191431 (A2) ― 1986-08-20 - Method and device for rapid acquisition of spin resonance data for a space-resolved examination of an object.
EP0184840 (A1) ― 1986-06-18 - Arrangement for the spatially resolved inspection of a sample by means of magnetic resonance of spin moments.
EP2699926 (A1) ― 2014-02-26 - Spatially encoded phase-contrast MRI

Eileen Ingham and John Fisher CBE (United Kingdom): Donor tissue without rejection

EP1392372 (A1) ― 2004-03-03 - Decellularisation of matrice
EP2094325 (A2) ― 2009-09-02 - Preparation of tissue for meniscal implantation
EP1624922 (A1) ― 2006-02-15 - Ultrasonic modification of soft tissue matrices

Jacek Jemielity, Joanna Kowalska, Edward Darżynkiewicz and team (Poland): Stabilising messenger RNA

EP2167523 (A2) ― 2010-03-31 - Synthesis and use of anti-reverse phosphorothioate analogs of the messenger RNA cap
EP2297175 (A2) ― 2011-03-23 - MRNA cap analogs

Non-EPO countries

Stephen Dewar (Canada), Philip Watts (United States/Canada) and Frank Fish (United States): Turbines and fans inspired by whales

EP1805412 (A1) ― 2007-07-11 - Turbine and compressor employing tubercle leading edge rotor design

Alex Kipman (Brazil): HoloLens: mixed reality smart glasses

EP3028121 (A1) ― 2016-06-08 - Mixed reality graduated information delivery

Esther Sans Takeuchi (United States): Batteries to reset the heart

EP1215175 (A1) ― 2002-06-19 - Preparation of epsilon-phase silver vanadium oxide (SVO) from gamma-phase SVO starting material
EP1816692 (A1) ― 2007-08-08 - Lithium/fluorinated carbon cell for high-rate pulsatile applications

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Mehrdad Mahdjoubi (Sweden): Closed-loop shower

EP2793667 (A1) ― 2014-10-29 - Device for purifying and recycling shower water

Jane ní Dhulchaointigh and team (Ireland): Sugru: multi-purpose mouldable glue

EP2089465 (A1) ― 2009-08-19 - Room temperature curable silicone elastomer composition

Thomas Scheibel (Germany): Artificial spider silk

EP2021361 (A1) ― 2009-02-11 - Microfluidic device for controlled aggregation of spider silk
EP2013290 (A1) ― 2009-01-14 - Multilayer silk protein films
EP1948684 (A1) ― 2008-07-30 - Production of recombinant collagen-like proteins

Lifetime achievement

Ursula Keller (Switzerland): Ultrafast pulsed lasers

EP1735681 (A1) ― 2006-12-27 - Surface emitting laser with an integrated absorber
EP1456916 (A2) ― 2004-09-15- Semiconductor saturable absorber mirror device

Jacques Lewiner (France): Smoke alarm, internet connections, secure key cards and many more

EP0034077 (A2) ― 1981-08-19 - Composite sheets containing electromechanical transducers, and transducers comprising such sheets.
EP0236223 (A1) ― 1987-09-09 - Ionization chamber smoke detector
EP0169150 (A1) ― 1986-01-22 - Coded lock device, especially with a keyboard.