July 2024

EUROPEAN INVENTOR AWARD 2024 – and the award goes to… CORDELIA SCHMID, RESEARCH DIRECTOR AT INRIA GRENOBLE

This year’s ceremony was held on 9 July 2024, in Malta, where the European Patent Office (EPO) revealed the winners of the prestigious “European Inventor Award”. It should be noted that since being established in 2006, this award has been handed out annually to showcase and pay tribute to the inventive spirit and creativity of inventors in a variety of categories including: Industry, Research, Non-EPO Countries, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), and Lifetime Achievement.

However, from 2025 onwards, the award will become a biennial feature with the ceremony held every other year, on an alternating basis with the “Young Inventors Prize”.

Be that as it may, the winners list for the year 2024 include the following individuals named respectively in each of the below categories (Source EPO) :

Industry: Fiorenzo Dioni (Italy) and Richard Oberle (Germany) recognised for ” High Precision Aluminium Casting Methods ” for the Automotive Industry – Patent EP3554745B1, filed in the name of IDRA S R L (IT)
Research: Cordelia Schmid (Germany), Research Director at INRIA – the French National Research Institute for Digital Science and Technology, in Grenoble, recognised for “her innovative contributions in the field of computer vision, which have been pivotal in enabling advancements in machine learning applications that concern technologies used as part of everyday life” – Patents EP3547211B1 filed in the name of Naver CORP (KR) ; and EP3549102B1 filed in the name of Google LLC (US)
Non-EPO countries: Masato Sagawa (Japan) recognised for “creating the world’s most powerful permanent magnets, which are essential in various high-tech applications” – Patents EP 3260380B1 filed in the name of Intermetallics CO LTD (JP) and Daido Steel CO LTD (JP) ; EP 2889883B1 filed in the name of Intermetallics CO LTD (JP) ; and EP2696355B1 filed in the name of Intermetallics CO LTD (JP)
SMEs: Olga Malinkiewicz and her team (Poland) recognised for “contributing to the progress made in solar power generation technologies thanks to the development of perovskite solar cells, which offer high efficiency and cost-effectiveness while being environmentally friendly ” – Patents EP3227394B1 and EP 3719001B1 filed in the name of Saule SP Z O O (PL)
Lifetime Achievement: Dame Carol Vivien Robinson (United Kingdom) recognised for her “work in mass spectrometry that paved the way for significant advancements in biochemical research and medical diagnostics” – Patents EP2721419B1 filed in the name of Univ Oxford Innovation LTD (UK) ; EP3847462B1 filed in the name of Univ Oxford Innovation LTD (GB) ; and EP2589064B1 filed in the name of Cambridge Entpr LTD (GB).