作者╱北美智权法规研究组 古夏平 Charl Goussard
中文摘要／北美智权 李仪 Bravo Li
2011/11/30
摘要
『欧洲发明人奖』算是欧洲最受尊崇的发明奖，每年颁奖给少数最亮眼的发明金头脑。这个奖项自2006年起，每年由欧洲专利局、欧洲议会，以及欧盟主席所在国三方连手合作，颁发发明奖给得奖人及团体。这个奖项的宗旨，是为了赞扬发明人以及团队，对生活挑战提供答案、改进以及增加富足。奖项设立纯粹是象征性意义，并不牵涉奖金颁发。虽说并无奖金，但这项发明奖，在欧洲有重要的指标性作用。只要获奖，这份奖项的名声与荣耀就能成功说服保守的消费者，相信由获奖的发明所制成的产品，是值得大量投资与消费的。如SME类得奖主Jens Dall Bentzen所言：「丹麦的一般消费者，在购物时非常谨慎保守，『欧洲发明人奖』就是消费者的参考指标，从指标而出，有放宽消费者保守性格的功能。」。欧洲专利局（EPO）主席Benoit Battistelli 评论：「欧洲专利在由创意到成功推展至市场的循环中，扮演着重要角色。『欧洲发明人奖』得主，受惠于专利制度，不仅在技术领域能有突破，也支持了所在公司机构的发展。在增进人类生活、创造工作上，均作出重大贡献」。本文也列出2011年五位得奖主的得奖项目与专业背景，供读者对照了解奖励的内涵与方向。
Background:
The most esteemed honor for inventors in Europe, the European Inventor Award, is annually presented to a handful of brilliant inventive minds. Since its launch in 2006, the European Inventor Award is presented by the European Patent Office, in collaboration with the European Commission and the Country holding the EU presidency at the time of the award ceremony.
The award brings tribute to inventive persons or teams whose revolutionary efforts offer answers to the challenges of life and hence add to improvement and affluence.
It is a purely symbolic award and does not incorporate any prize money.
Despite the fact that this award bears no direct financial gain to its recipients, the honor and prestige associated with it is significant. When Jens Dall Bentzen, winner of the SME's categories, was asked what effect winning the award would have, he answered: "The end customers, at least in Denmark, are very conservative in their choice of their big investments , and now, having a reference plan (European Inventor Award), will loosen up this conservativeness. With the award it would be easier to convince customers."
After listening to the EPO interviews with the various winners, it became clear that the golden threat in the driving force behind all of these inventors are raw passion for their field of specialisation, and a real empathy with the world around them. Inventing to make life better for others!
EPO president, Benoit Battistelli commented that, "European Patents play an important role in the cycle from idea to market success. The winners of the European Inventor Award have benefited from the patent system, not only coming up with breakthroughs in their technical fields, but supporting the development of their companies or institutions; they have actively contributed to job creation to the improvement of people's daily lives.
The 2011 honors:
Both the public and patent examiners participate in the nomination process.
The champions are then selected from the nominees by a panel of esteemed jurors, including the European Parliament's President.
This year's honors were presented to inventors ranging a wide spectrum: from water sanitization with a UV-light, to identifying disease genes in Alzheimer sufferers, to low-emission bio-fuel furnaces, to steel fiber reinforced concrete and titanium implants for dental reconstructive surgery.
The winners of the 2011 European Patent Award, in their respective categories, were:
1. Per-Ingvar Branemark (Sweden) ~ Lifetime Achievement (Titanium Implants);
2. Ann Lambrechts (Belgium) ~ Industry (Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete);
3. Jens Dall Bentzen (Denmark) ~ SME's (Low-emission bio-fuel furnace);
4. Christine Van Broekhoven (Belgium) ~ Research (Identifying disease genes in Alzheimer's);
5. Ashok Gadgil and Vikas Garud (USA/India) ~ Non-European Countries (UV water disinfection device).
The Inventors:
1. Per-Ingvar Branemark
Branemark is a Swedish orthopedic surgeon and research professor at Gothenburg University, Sweden. He is known as the "father of modern dental implantology" – http://www.doctorspiller.com/implants.htm
Branemark is honored for his discovery and application of osseointegration, which is the biological synthesis of bone and foreign matter. In practice, this discovery led to a revolution in reconstructive surgical dentistry.
Branemark has received numerous honorary doctor degrees from universities worldwide. In addition he has been honored by many dental and medical societies globally.
The European Inventor Award (Lifetime achievement) has been awarded to Branemark to honor him for the benefit that millions of people worldwide have enjoyed due to his outstanding invention.
2. Ann Lambrechts
Lambrechts is the head R&D at Bekaert, a global technological leader headquartered in Belgium.
Lambrechts has been honored for her development of Dramix® steel fibres, which is widely used in the construction industry, for concrete reinforcement. Lambrechts development has opened up a world of new application possibilities in architecture and construction. The application of Lambrechts' invention "increases the bending tensile strength of concrete by 32%, and ensures improved anchorage for a better crack control and anchorage" - http://www.bekaert.com
Lambrechts' achievement has been honored by the European Inventor Award (Industry), for its contribution to the enablement of numerous spectacular new structures, such as the Gotthard tunnel (third longest road tunnel in the world).
3. Jens Dall Bentzen
Jens Dall Bentzen is the architect behind a revolutionary biomass furnace.
Through Bentzen's invention, energy can be derived from both dry and moist biomass with a moist content of up to 60%. Traditional biomass combustion requires dried material, prior to combustion.
Furthermore, Bentzen's furnace has a considerably lower emission rate – about 90-95% less than that of traditional furnaces. In addition, the whole furnace structure can operate without any filters and still meet the most recent emission regulations.
In summation, Bentzen has developed a biomass furnace that accommodates a bigger variety of bio fuel, has reduced maintenance costs, and lower emission rates.
For Bentzen's contribution in overcoming various obstacles in the use of bio fuels, the European Inventor Award (SME's) has been handed to him.
In an interview recorded by the European Patent Office, Bentzen said that "…the Inventor Award is good for all Europe to get the awareness of invention. The need for new inventions (not only) improve quality of life, but also the competitiveness of Europe." - EPO.
4. Christine Van Broekhoven
Christine Van Broekhoven is a molecular biologist, professor in Molecular genetics at the University of Antwerp, and she also joined politics for a brief stint, but resigned from politics in 2010 to concentrate on scientific research.
Van Broekhoven has done in depth research on neurodegenerative brain diseases. In particular, her groundbreaking work related to the detection of disease genes in Alzheimer's patients has led to the development of various modern drugs and treatments to curb Alzheimer's disease.
For her exceptional accomplishments in research, she has once again been honored – this time as winner of the European Inventor Award in the category Research.
5. Ashok Gadgil & Vikas Garud
Ashok Gadgil is lecturer at UC Berkeley and is also the Director ofthe Environmental Energy Technologies Division at the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory. Furthermore, Gadgil is also involved in the development of numerous inventions/devices for use in developmental aid projects – his energy efficient cook stoves, for instance, are used by refugees in Darfur.
Ex-colleague of Gadgil, Vikas Garud, in currently employed by H2O Innovation USA, where he focuses his research on applications of membrane processes for water and waste water treatment.
Gadgil, with the help of Garud, developed an avant-garde method for water purification ~ overcoming the cost intensive and infrastructural problems which exists in large parts of the developing world. Gadgil and Garud's devise has been established in more than 10 countries and it delivers clean water to more than two million people.
For their remarkable invention, they have been honored with the European Invention Award in the category of Non-European countries.
Conclusion
In the words of the Hungarian president, Pal Schmidt, "This award highlights that Europe continues to be a leader in technical innovation".
Not only is the European Invention Award an opportunity to celebrate the growing role of Europe in the field of invention, but it also brings a focus to the unquestionable importance of invention for the material progress of humanity.
