• Patents
• About us
• Topics

Print version.

Promotion

"European Inventor of the Year" - Conference and Gala hosted by the European Commission and the European Patent Office

Munich/Brussels, 23.2.2006 - The European Commission and the European Patent Office (EPO) are jointly organising a gala evening for the first-ever presentation of the European Inventor of the Year awards. The achievements of inventors in six different categories will be honoured by Günter Verheugen, Vice-President of the European Commission and patron of the gala, and EPO President Alain Pompidou as host. An international jury, chaired by former Netherlands prime minister Wim Kok, will choose the prizewinners in each category, on the basis of outstanding technical inventions for which the EPO granted a patent between 1991 und 2000. The award ceremony will take place on 3 May 2006 at the Autoworld Museum in Brussels.

The gala, which several hundred guests are expected to attend, will be the highlight of a two-day international conference, beginning on 3 May, on the patent systems of Europe and China. The emphasis of the first day will be on the challenges and the economic potential of patenting in Europe; the next day, the focus will shift to the patent system in China and the opportunities which it presents. Those attending will include inventors, industrialists, representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises, financial experts and lawyers, and a judge from the Supreme People's Court in Beijing, in addition to representatives of the Commission and the EPO.

Programme details and updates are available at www.european-inventor.org

For further information please contact:

European Patent Office
Press Office
Rainer Osterwalder
80298 Munich
Telephone: +4989/2399-1821
press@epo.org