CodeFest 2026 winners announced at PATLIB conference in Warsaw
From left to right: Arnab Saha, Team Confused Electrons (grand prize winner); Elena Mas Tur, Team Red Cube Coders (first runner-up); Grazia Sveva Ascione, Team EUREKA (second runner-up); Ewa Skrzydło-Tefelska, President of the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland; Silvia Rossi, Director of the State Office for Patents and Trademarks of San Marino; Muhammed Zeki Durak, President of Türkpatent; and Diego Eguidazu Alonso, Chief Information Officer, European Patent Office.
The European Patent Office (EPO) today announced the winners of its CodeFest 2026 competition during a live award ceremony at the PATLIB conference in Warsaw.
Now in its fourth year, CodeFest challenged developers, data scientists and innovators from across EPO member states to create tools that help businesses better understand the value of their patents. The goal: make it easier for startups, investors and companies to identify promising inventions, attract funding and make smarter business decisions.
In total, 23 proposals were submitted by individuals and teams from 12 countries. The share of women participants has increased steadily over the past three years since the competition was first launched, rising from 12% in 2024 to 21% in 2026, with two women among this year’s winning teams.
A jury of EPO and external experts, with collective expertise in information technology, data science, artificial intelligence, and patent information and analytics, selected six finalists. From these finalists, the jury selected one grand-prize winner and two runners-up. At the ceremony, the prizes were presented by Ewa Skrzydło-Tefelska, President of the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland, Silvia Rossi, Director of the State Office of Patents and Trademarks of San Marino, and Muhammed Zeki Durak, President of TÜRKPATENT.
Grand-prize winner: Confused Electrons
Team members: Arnab Saha, Ralph Ryan Hebrio and Mauricio Rodriguez Alas
What makes a patent valuable? Confused Electrons set out to answer that question. The team developed an AI and machine learning powered platform that analyses patent portfolios and identifies the factors that contribute to a patent's long-term strategic value. By examining elements such as technological impact, market relevance and legal strength, the solution helps businesses understand how patents can support growth and create a competitive edge. The team received the grand prize of EUR 20 000.
First runner-up: Red-Cube-Coders
Team members: George Abi Younes, Mehdi El Bouari, Reza Hosseini, Elena Mas Tur and Gaétan de Rassenfosse
Red-Cube coders created a solution that assesses both the technical strength and commercial value of patents. The solution introduces two key indicators: a "blocking score", measuring the extent to which patents may constrain future developments, and a "commercialisation score", estimating their market potential. Using machine learning and patent analytics, the solution analyses relationships between patents and indicators of technological and economic relevance. As first runner-up, the team received EUR 10 000.
Second runner-up: EUREKA
Team members: Grazia Sveva Ascione and Nicolo Tamagnone
The team developed an AI-driven system that mirrors the patent examination process by focusing on the inventive contribution of an invention in relation to the prior art. Rather than relying on simple statistical indicators, the platform analyses technical differences and identifies the closest prior art to assess the strength of an invention. The solution uses advanced AI models trained on patent examination data to go beyond basic keyword matching. By modelling examiner-style reasoning, it offers a deeper, patent-focused approach to evaluating innovation. As second runner-up, the team received EUR 5 000.
A recording of the CodeFest award ceremony will be made available shortly on the Codefest webpage.
The EPO would like to thank all participants in this year's competition and extend its congratulations to the finalists for their outstanding work.
