EPO award finalists (2) – Elmar Mock - Ultrasonic welding

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Do you wear a Swatch®–a hip Swiss watch with legendary mechanical craftsmanship priced for everyone?

If you do, then you are probably also wearing a very light weight watch with a plastic casing that was manufactured using ultrasonic welding, a process that consists in assembling thermo-weldable parts using a tool for applying high-frequency vibrations.

However, ultrasonic welding of the plastic Swatch® casing is also famous for another reason! Indeed, it was ultrasonic welding, together with integrated production of the Swatch® that reduced both the number of watch parts (from 91 to 51) and costs, without sacrificing the famous mechanical precision of Swiss time pieces. In turn, this new high quality “plastic” watch is purported to have actually rescued the Swiss mechanical watch industry in the 1980s from competing quartz movement timepieces, flooding the market from Asia. A period of time during which the market share of mechanical Swiss watches dropped from 50% to 15%! (Swatch – History)

The assembly and fitting of the watch crystal to the casing of the Swatch® is subjected to ultrasonic welding. This invention is recited in:

• US4648722 (A) ― 1987-03-10 titled Plastic watch casing with plastic crystal and process for joining the crystal to the casing.

At the end of the day, however, the Swatch® and its ultrasonic welding process is one of many inventions competing at the EPO awards this year, since this invention falls in the life-time achievement category. Indeed it is the life-time achievements of the Swiss engineer Elmar Mock, co-founder of the Swatch® (in the 1980s), and subsequently, founder of the professional inventors company called Creaholic, that are being celebrated.

  

The life-time achievements of this Swiss engineer include 100s of patented inventions ranging from more diversified ultrasonic welding inventions, such as bone and joint ultrasonic welding in the medical sciences and ultrasonic welding of wood for carpentry applications, to water-saving hand washing stations, and food delivery systems for Nestlé, the Swiss multinational food company. The following are a few sample patents reciting these additional ground-breaking inventions:

• EP2358311 (B1) titled Fusion device and tool set for fusing a human or animal joint
• US2016317141 (A1) titled Method and device for fixating a suture anchor with a suture in hard tissue
• WO2017015769 (A1) titled - Method for joining a device to an object with the aid of ultrasonic vibration energy and device and installation suitable for the method
• EP2017221 (A1) titled Device for dispensing a liquid
• EP1768925 (B1) titled System and device for preparing and delivering food products from a mixture made up of a food liquid and a diluent!
• EP1954893 (B1) titled  Washing device 

Below, the EPO video spotlighting Elmar Mock's favorite inventions, and his tribe at Creaholic. 

References

Creaholic – Professional inventors

www.creaholic.com

Swatch

www.swatch.com

Swatch  history

https://www.swatch.com/en_us/explore/history

EPO award finalists (1) - Sylviane Muller - Lupuzor™

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Lupus is a debilitating auto-immune disease, predominantly affecting women between 15 and 40 years of age, and the black population, although early diagnosis is difficult due to the large array of symptoms. The Lupus Foundation of America estimates that various forms of this disease affect 1.5 million in the US, and 5 million worldwide (LFA).

The body’s immune system, which normally defends against bacteria, viruses and other invaders, triggers abnormal antibodies (called auto-antibodies) that attack the patient’s own healthy tissues, as if it were an infection. The symptoms of the disease are tissue inflammation, sometimes specifically of a single organ such as the thyroid, and more commonly systemic, of all or several organs, such as the skin, connective tissue of joints, kidneys, liver, heart and brain.

Treatments to date are immunosuppressive, with important side effects since they also weaken overall immunity, which makes patients more susceptible to infections and other diseases.

However, all of this is about to change with the 2018 scheduled marketing of Lupuzor™ (rigerimod or P140), a small peptide drug that modulates the rogue production of antibodies, while leaving the immune system otherwise inact, and thus halts the progression of the disease.  A new treatment and hope exist for the thousands of people suffering from this devastating disease.

This invention, consisting of a modified peptide, is recited in the following 4 European patents, awarded to Sylviane Muller and her colleagues, researchers at the CNRS Institute of molecular and cellular biology, in Strasbourg France:   

• EP1425295 titled Modified peptides and their use for the treatment of autoimmune diseases  
• EP1631586 titled Peptide analogues comprising at least one type of aminoacyl aza-beta 3 and the use thereof, in particular for therapy 
• EP1507794 titled Novel multimeric molecules, the preparation method thereof and use of same for the preparation of medicaments 
• EP0491014 titled Sm-D antigen peptides and their use, in particular, for the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus. 

The EPO video below spotlights Sylviane Muller, and tells the story of this potential blockbuster drug.

References

CDC - Lupus detailed Fact Sheet

https://www.cdc.gov/lupus/facts/detailed.html  

CDC - Lupus Registries and Longitudinal Studies

https://www.cdc.gov/lupus/funded/lupus-studies.htm

Clinical Trials.org – Lupuzor

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=lupuzor&Search=Search

ImunoPharma (different from ImmunoPharma.net)

http://www.immupharma.org/

Lupus Drug candidate Lupuzor™ pivotal Phase 3 Clinical Trial doses first European patients

https://lupusnewstoday.com/2016/06/08/first-european-patients-commence-dosing-lupuzors-pivotal-phase-iii-study/

Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) - National Resource Center on Lupus (Facts & Statistics)

http://www.resources.lupus.org/entry/facts-and-statistics

Lupuzor™

http://www.lupuzor.com/  

WHO - Principles and methods for studying autoimmunity associated with exposure to chemicals

http://www.who.int/ipcs/publications/ehc/ehc236.pdf?ua=1

EPO Awards 2017 - The Jury

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

This year, the jury of the EPO Awards is gender-equal for the very first time! This means that an equal number of men and women selected the finalists and winners of the European patent awards in all the categories, except the popular vote now in process.   

In previous years, such famous inventors as Ernö Rubik (the Hungarian inventor of the Rubik’s cube) and Mandy Haberman (the British inventor of the “Anywayup™” sippy cup) were members of the jury.

Who are the 12 members of the EPO Awards jury this year, and how did they select the finalists and winners?

Below, you will find a video narrated by the President of the EPO, Benoît Battistelli, which gives a fascinating glimpse of the jurying process. 

For additional information on juror accolades, a hyperlinked list of the twelve 2017 jurors is also included, some of whose names you may recognize from previous years.  Dr. Helen Lee, for example,  who was Winner of the 2016 European Inventor Award in the popular vote category for SAMBA, a portable diagnostic lab developed for the third world; or Mario Moretti Polegato, Chair of the 2017 Jury, who is the inventor of Geox shoes, the Italian “breathable and holey shoes”, also nominated in 2012 for a European Inventor Award in the Lifetime Achievement category.

For everyone else, just click to find out!

• Eleni Antoniadou
• José Luís Arnaut
• António Campinos
• Virna Cerne
• Tore Curstedt
• Dora Groó
• Wolfgang M. Heckl
• Roger Highfield
• Ingeborg Hochmair
• Helen Lee
• Angelika Niebler
• Mario Moretti Polegato - Chair of the jury

Lineup for 2017 EPO awards

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The fifteen contenders for a 2017 European patent award, three in each of the five categories of Industry, Research, Non-EPO countries, Small and Medium Enterprises, and Life-time Achievement, are presented in the short EPO video. Hyperlinks to the contenders and the patented inventions are also included below.

Copyright ©  EPOFilm  

Industry

• Lars Liljeryd (Sweden) -  EP0940015 - Source coding enhancement using spectral-band replication
• Giuseppe Remuzzi, Carlamaria Zoja and Ariela Benigni (Italy) -  EP1019048 (A1) ― 2000-07-19 - Use of an angiotensin ii receptor antagonist for the preparation of drugs to increase the survival rate of renal transplant patients
• Jan van den Boogaart and Oliver Hayden (The Netherlands/Austria) - EP2635695 (A1) ― 2013-09-11 - Method for detecting a plasmodium infection.

Research

• Hans Clevers (The Netherlands)- EP0972037 (B1) ― 2006-08-16 - Beta-catenin, tcf-4, and apc interact to prevent cancer
• Laurent Lestarquit, José Ángel Ávila Rodríguez and team (France, Spain) -  EP1570287 (B1) ― 2006-05-03 - Method and device for generating a constant envelope navigation signal with four independent codes
• Sylviane Muller (France) - EP1425295 (B1) ― 2009-12-23 - Modified peptides and their use for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.  

Non EPO countries

• James G. Fujimoto, Eric A. Swanson and Robert Huber (USA, Germany) - EP0883793 (B1) ― 2007-11-14 - Method and apparatus for performing optical measurements using a fiber optic imaging guidewire, catheter or endoscope
• Waleed Hassanein (USA) - EP1768490 (A2) ― 2007-04-04 - Systems and methods for ex-vivo organ care 
• Adnane Remmal (Morocco) - 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.  

Small & Medium enterprises

• Gert-Jan Gruter (The Netherlands)- EP2001859 (B1) ― 2010-05-19 - Use of organic acid esters of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural as a fuel or fuel additive
• Günter Hufschmid (Germany) - 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 
• Steve Lindsey (United Kingdom) - EP0933500 (B1) ― 2003-08-27 - Rotary piston machine.  

Life-time achievement

• Elmar Mock (Switzerland) - EP0101663 (B1) ― 1986-10-08 - Method of producing a watch and watch obtained by this method
• Rino Rappuoli (Italy) - EP0322533 (A1) ― 1989-07-05 - Bordetella pertussis toxin with altered toxicity  
• Axel Ullrich (Germany) -  EP0121338 (A1) ― 1984-10-10 - Biosynthetically produced human nerve growth factor, process for producing it, compositions containing it, DNA sequence encoding it, vectors containing the sequence and host cells transformed thereby.

European Patent Awards 2017 - Vote here!

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The Jury of the annual European Patent Office Awards has deliberated. The list of the 2017 finalists has been announced. 

You may participate in the European Inventor Awards by casting votes for your favorite invention in the Popular Awards category. Prizes are awarded in a total of six categories, including Industry, Research, Small and Medium Entreprises, Non-European Patent Organization inventor, Lifetime Achievement and the Popular Award.

Vote here

The winners, one in each category, will receive their prizes on June 15, 2017, in a ceremony to be held this year in Venice (Italy).
You may vote as many times as you like, every day, but just one vote each day. The list of the finalists with videos highlighting their work is included with the ballot. 

Earth Day

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

References
March of Science
https://www.marchforscience.com/ 
Earthday.org
http://www.earthday.org/
UN International Mother Earth Day 2017
http://www.un.org/en/events/motherearthday/background.shtml

An inconvenient sequel

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

10 years ago, former Vice-President Al Gore, delivered the message of climate change to the world in a beautiful documentary and book, both titled An inconvenient Truth. A year later, in 2007, Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in connection with this message. Although the effects of greenhouse gasses on the climate were known well before the publication of this book and release of the documentary, no one had really understood the urgency of the situation or felt compelled to take action.

Thereafter, this much changed on a planetary level. Whether it was Energy Star appliances in the home economics department, idle functions on laptops, solar energy initiatives, the widescale adoption of hybrid cars as a step towards electric ones, or flyknit uppers on sports shoes, everyone both personally and collectively began taking steps to reduce their fossil fuel footprint. On an international level, the largest industrial polluting nations of the Northern hemisphere also began taking responsibility for creating an increased threat of famine and hardship, arising from ever greater climate changes in the Southern hemisphere.

Now, mark July 28, 2017 in your agendas as the release date of An Inconvenient Sequel: From Truth to Power,  a documentary that promises to be at least as game-changing as the first. 

In any event, green might be staying, contrary to what was feared at Patents on the soles of your shoes in the aftermath of the Nov 2016 elections.

References

AL Gore

https://www.algore.com/

IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

https://www.ipcc.ch/index.htm
Nobel Peace Prize 2007
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/
The Climate Reality Project
https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/inconvenient-truth-then-and-now
Green gone grey post November 2016 US elections?
http://patentsonthesolesofyourshoes.blogspot.com/2016/12/green-gone-grey-post-nov-2016-us.html