28 May 2013
Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands watches the ceremony
The EPO today announced the winners of the European Inventor Award 2013, which honours outstanding inventors for their contribution to social, economic and technological progress.
Some 500 guests attended the award ceremony at the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam, including Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands, Sander Dekker, the Netherlands State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science, and Michel Barnier, the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services.
The 2013 awards were presented in five categories, in addition to the Popular Prize:
José Luis López Gómez, winner of the first European Inventor Award Popular Prize
"Innovation holds the key to safeguarding quality of life and economic prosperity in Europe," said EPO President Benoît Battistelli at the award ceremony. "All of the inventors honoured here today have been truly exemplary, not only in coming up with ingenious solutions to challenges of our time, such as healthcare and climate change, but also in improving people's lives through the quality of the products and services that we are using every day, and by creating jobs to promote economic wealth. They demonstrate Europe's creative drive and inventive spirit, and the role played by patents in supporting this."
Accepting his award, Patrick Couvreur, winner in the Research category, said he was "especially happy" to receive it as it recognised the need for more medicines to treat cancer, and pancreatic cancer in particular.
Pål Nyrén, winner in the SMEs category, said it was "a real surprise to be nominated" and added that he was "even more surprised" to win the award.
Bala Sudarshan Cadambi, one of the team who won in the Non-European countries category, said that "a problem is often an opportunity". He described how the team's invention, USB, had helped his mother to use her digital camera, and teammate Ajay Bhatt's daughter to take her music with her.
A winner in the Industry category, Claus Hämmerle stressed the important role his colleagues had played in developing the soft-close hinge. He said the award celebrated "the success of a team of specialists".
Popular Prize winner José Luis López Gómez recalled how his brother had told him that it would be difficult to develop something new because everything had already been invented. But "everything can be optimised to improve the quality of life," he told the audience.
Lifetime achievement winner Martin Schadt said he was "very surprised" to receive the award "because my colleagues did beautiful work too. It must have been a difficult decision."