Patents on the soles of your shoes...: May 2026

Sunday, May 24, 2026

2026 European Inventor Awards - The Jury (3).

The members of the European Inventor Awards Jury included both Young Inventor Award and former European Inventor Award recipients.

Wolfgang M. Heckl (Chair) is the former Director General of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. He is Emeritus of Excellence at the Munich Technical University, Senior Excellence Faculty, and holds the Oskar von Miller Chair for science communication at the Technical University in Munich, where he researches molecular self-organization in nanotechnology.

Mark Kennedy Bantugon is the recipient of an EPO Young Inventor Award in 2025. Bantugon is an aeronautical engineer, materials scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur, specializing in sustainable innovation. He established Pili AdheSeal Inc., to bring to market an aircraft sealant and adhesive made from Pili Tree resin agricultural waste.

Catia Bastioli is the recipient of a European Inventor Award in 2007. Bastioli is CEO and President of the Novamont Group (acquired by Versalis, part of Eni, in 2023).

Esben Beck is the recipient of a European Inventor Award in 2019. Beck is an inventor, entrepreneur, and founder of Stingray Marine Solutions.

Nuria Espallargas is the recipient of a European Inventor Award in 2022. Espallargas is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Joachim Fiedler is the recipient of a European Inventor Award in 2022. Fiedler studied at the University of the Arts in Berlin and worked as a professional cellist in several orchestras and ensembles.

Marta Karczewicz is the recipient of the European Patent Office, life-time achievement award in 2019. Karczewicz is Vice-President of Technology at Qualcomm, where she has driven advances in data coding algorithms since 2006.

Gaute Munch is the recipient of a European Inventor Award in 2018. Munch joined the LEGO Group as an electronic engineer in 1997, and currently leads the company’s electrical and digital product safety.

Marie Perrin is the recipient of an EPO Young Inventor Award in 2025. Perrin is a chemist and entrepreneur. She is currently Pioneer Fellow at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH), in Zurich, leading the startup project REEcover. A project that invokes an innovative process to recover rare earth elements from electronic waste.

Laura van't Veer is the recipient of a European Inventor Award in 2015. She is Chief Research Officer and the co-founder of Agendia, a molecular diagnostics company focused solely on breast cancer. She is full professor of Laboratory Medicine at the University California, in San Francisco.

Roujia Wen is the recipient of an EPO Young Inventor Award in 2025. She is the co-founder of Seabound, a company that builds modular, retrofittable carbon capture systems for cargo ships.

Reference
2026 European Inventor Award - About the Award.
https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/european-inventor-award/about-award

Saturday, May 23, 2026

European Inventor Popular Prize - Vote here! (2)

The European Patent Office (EPO) invites the public to vote for the Finalist who will receive the Popular Prize. The Popular Prize winner, solely decided by the public, will be announced on the occasion of the European Inventor Awards Ceremony, to be held in Berlin, on July 2nd, 2026.

The rules for voting are the following:

• You may vote for one to three inventors each day until the votes are counted, during the Awards Ceremony on July 2nd.

• Click on your first choice and then follow the prompts to accept the voting conditions.

• Registration to vote requires an authenticated email, or a social media account, the first time you vote. Click below to vote for your favorite inventors/inventions!

• Voting is free.

Click here to vote!

Reference
European Inventor Awards 2026
https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/european-inventor-award#finalists

Friday, May 22, 2026

European Inventor Awards 2026 - The Finalists (1)

On July 2nd, 2026, the prestigious European Inventor Awards will be conferred upon inventors competing in one of four categories: Industry, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Research, and Non-members of the European Patent Organization. This year, the ceremony will take place in Berlin, Germany.

Below, the list of the 12 finalists and their competing inventions, in each of the four categories.

Industry
• Giuseppe Crippa†, Roberto Crippa, Stefano Felici, Riccardo Vettori, Raffaele Vallauri, Flavio Maggioni and team (Italy).
Invention: Probe card advancements for testing microchips.
Sample patents
EP2984492B1 - Testing head of electronic devices.

EP3794357B1 - High-performance probe card in high-frequency.
EP3707519B1 - Contact probe for a testing head for testing high-frequency devices.

• Evangelos Eleftheriou and team (Switzerland/Greece).
Invention: Improvements to the stability and reliability of digital data storage.
Sample patents
EP2277173B1 - Error correction coding of longitudinal position information.
EP2513798B1 - Reducing access contention in flash-based memory systems.
EP2260491B1 - Error correction capability for longitudinal position data in a tape storage system.

• Angeliki Triantafyllou (Greece/Sweden)
Invention: Improved enzymatic process to prepare tasty oat drinks with a creamy mouthfeel, for the lactose-intolerant and as an alternative to the high energy footprint of dairy milk production.
Sample patent

EP2953482B1 – Liquid oat base.

Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
• Jan Čmelík and team (Czech Republic).
Invention: Electrospinning of nanofibers to scale the reliable manufacture of nanofibers used for various industrial and medical applications.
Sample patents
EP2291555B1 - Method and device for spinning of polymer composition in electrostatic field.
EP2732079B1 - Method for application of liquid polymeric material onto spinning cords and a device for production of nanofibers through electrostatic spinning.

• Przemek Ben Paczek and team (Poland).
Invention: Magnetic propulsion retrofitting technology to upgrade rails.
Sample patents
EP3841249B1 - Magnetic levitation railway system.
EP3938577B1 - Vacuum tube railway system.

• Franck Zal (France)
Invention: Captured the oxygen-carrying molecule M101 in marine worm hemoglobin for the preservation of transplant organs and other medical therapeutic uses.
Sample patent
EP3008166B1 - Sand worm lyophilisate and uses thereof.
EP2748306B1 - Use of annelid hemoglobin for maintaining stem cells in the undifferentiated state.
EP2184977B1 - Use of a globin, a globin protomer or an extracellular hemoglobin for the preservation of organs, tissues, organ and tissue cells.

Research
• Adrian V.S. Hill (Ireland/United Kingdom)
Invention: Invention of an adjuvant for the development of a highly effective malaria vaccine.
Sample patent
EP2945649 B1 - Composition and uses thereof.

• Mikko Möttönen (Finland)
Invention: Cryogenic microwave sensor for quantum computing.
Sample patent
EP3714245B1 - Cryogenic microwave analyzer.

• Paula Videira and team (Portugal)
Invention: The L2a5 monoclonal antibody for identifying and targeting cancer cells.
Sample patent
EP3743726B1 - L2a5 antibody or functional fragment thereof against tumor antigens.

Non-EPO Countries
• Yu Haijun and Xie Yinghao (China)
Invention: Smart battery recycling, using "reverse-positioning" technology to convert spent batteries into ultra-high-quality new cathode materials.
Sample patent
EP4206141B1 - Method for preparing lithium nickel cobalt manganate by means of reverse positioning of power battery and use thereof.

• Emily Morris and Thorsten Stoesser (United States/Germany).
Invention: Novel distributed hydropower generation systems.
Sample patent
EP3682107B1 - Hydro transition systems and methods of using the same.

• Aníbal Montalva Rodríguez and Miguel Ángel Fernández Donoso (Chile).
Invention: Sample patent: Living biofilter for efficient air purification
Sample patent
EP3345671B1 - Systems for decontamination by means of a biofilter for retaining and recycling pollutants of particulate material from combustion fumes, and method thereof.

Reference

European Patent Awards 2026 - Press Release

https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/press-centre/press-release/2026/1362414

Sunday, May 17, 2026

Oh, patents! Blu Dot furniture (4)

The Blue Dot Rule Console, with two softclose doors and two softclose drawers, is part of a 5-piece Blu Dot Rule Collection, comprising nightstand, large dresser, chiffonier and 1-door 2 drawers console. The pieces are all about geometry, each resting on a powder-coated steel base.

The Rule Console design was granted the US design patent USD870492S, titled Console. The patent was awarded to Warren Young, an in-house designer at Blu Dot, on December 24, 2019.

The patent Figure 1 together with an image of a marketed Rule Console in solid oak veneer, are enclosed below.

Reference

Blu Dot furniture

https://www.bludot.com/

Saturday, May 16, 2026

Oh, patents! Blu Dot furniture (3)

The Blu Dot Host Chair is a bucket dining chair made of engineered wood and molded foam for generous padding and comfort. The Blu Dot Host chair was granted the US design patent USD890541S, titled Chair. The patent was awarded on July 21, 2020 to B. Bradshaw Bray, former Senior designer at Blu Dot. The patent is assigned to Blu Dot Design & Manufacturing in Minneapolis, MN.

The patent Figure 1, together with an image of a marketed embodiment of the Host Chair, is included below. The two broken lines running down the middle of the chair indicate that all portions of the design are covered, since nothing appears between the broken lines, which conventionally mark boundaries between what is claimed and unclaimed in a patent.

Reference
Blue Dot
https://www.bludot.com/

Thursday, May 7, 2026

Oh, patents! Blu Dot furniture (2)

The Blu Dot Neat Chair, shown below in charcoal wool-blend felt, is completely covered from top to bottom in felt. Under the felt, the Neat Chair has a wood frame, injected foam, and metal legs. The “footie pajama” design is built to offer soft, comfortable seating.

The Blu Dot Neat Chair is also a patented design. The US design patent, USD845021S, titled Dining Chair, was awarded to B. Bradshaw Bray, former Senior Designer at Blu Dot, on April 9th, 2019. The patent was assigned to Blu Dot Design & Manufacturing, Inc., Minneapolis, MN.

The patent Figure 1, depicting a front-right perspective view of the chair, is also included below. The dotted lines at the bottom of the four chair legs indicate that the small chair feet form no part of the claimed design.

Reference

Blu Dot

https://www.bludot.com/

Sunday, May 3, 2026

Oh, patents! Blu Dot furniture (1)

Founded in Minneapolis, in 1997, by college friends, architects and sculptor, John Christakos, Maurice Blanks, and Charlie Lazo, Blu Dot seeks to make good design accessible to as many people as possible. Everything that is sold at Blu Dot stores is designed in-house.

In 2018, the company was awarded the prestigious Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Museum, National Design Award, in the category of Product Design. The company was also granted several US design patents.

For example, the US Design patent, USD905978S, titled Seating unit, was awarded on Dec. 29th, 2020, to Blu Dot Designer, Scott Smrstick. The patent was then assigned to Blu Dot Design & Manufacturing, Inc., in Minneapolis, MN.

The patent Figure 1, showing a front upper perspective view of the design, is included below. The two symbolic broken lines, running the length of the design, indicate that all portions of the design are covered, since nothing appears between the broken lines, which conventionally mark boundaries between what is claimed and unclaimed in a patent.

An image of a marketed embodiment of the design, in velvet, is also included below, facing the patent Figure 1. The invented design is designated the Bloke Lounge Chair in stores.

References
Blu Dot
https://www.bludot.com/
2018 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award Winners
https://www.cooperhewitt.org/national-design-awards/2018-national-design-awards-winners/