Talk innovation: unlocking technology

Moderator: Nigel Clarke, expert in patent information, EPO Guest: Sonsoles Hernanz, patent examiner, EPO Advances in metal processing have given countless enterprises a decisive technological advantage ever since the emergence of the first Bronze Age civilisations. More recently, welding even entered the field of plastics. Sonsoles Hernanz has the latest, including on how virtual reality helps to...

Moderator: Rainer Osterwalder, Director, Communication, EPO Guest: Dr Önder Nomaler, Researcher at UNU-MERIT Tracing the development of a technology in patents can hold quite a number surprises, Önder Nomaler tells us in his podcast. His method: don’t just consider individual patents, but establish a technology’s trajectory by considering related references such as citations from other patents. Yo...

Moderator: Rainer Osterwalder, Director, Communication, EPO Guest: Dolores Modic, Postdoktor, Nord University Business School Innovation and IP data are prototypical “big data” troves used by organisations for informed decision making and evidence-based policy development, Dolores Modic explains in her podcast. To facilitate this usage providers such as the EPO need to openly publish their data in...

Moderator: Gwilym Roberts, Partner at Kilburn & Strode LLP, London Guests: Cyra Nargolwalla, Partner at Passeraud IP, Paris and Dr Joachim Renken, Partner at Hoffmann Eitle, Munich In a lively debate three experienced patent attorneys critically assess “Opposition by VICO” at the EPO. Oral proceedings cannot be postponed indefinitely, despite the pandemic’s restrictions on travel and meetings....

Moderator: Rainer Osterwalder, Director, Communication, EPO Guest: Alessandra Perri, Associate Professor, Ca’ Foscari University While the accelerating ubiquity of digital technologies can be experienced almost universally, the automotive sector is particularly strongly affected by the 4th industrial revolution. Alessandra Perri presents a patent landscaping study that invites us to take a deeper...

Moderator: Rainer Osterwalder, Director, Communication, EPO Guest: Professor Giuseppe Scellato, Politecnico di Turino In terms of patents generated by publicly funded research such as the EU’s FP7 programme is often difficult to assess. In this podcast, Giuseppe Scellato from the Politecnico Turin presents a method that helps to show how the programme activities translated into patents, providing...

Moderator: Rainer Osterwalder, Director, Communication, EPO Guest: Professor Dietmar Harhoff, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition Technical standards are key to securing the interoperability of devices such as smart phones and computers, and are often claimed in standard-essential patents (SEPs). But how can be verified whether a patent really pertains to a technical standard as cl...

Moderator: Marjorie Chopinaud, Team Manager, EPO Guest: Laura van 't Veer, Co-founder and Chief Research Officer, Agendia Inventor, researcher, professor and businesswoman: Laura van 't Veer wears many hats. She invented a gene-based breast cancer test that helps doctors decide whether a patient needs to undergo chemotherapy. Since winning the European Inventor Award in 2015, Laura’s invention was...

Moderator: Marjorie Chopinaud, Team Manager, EPO  Guest: Laura van 't Veer, Co-founder and Chief Research Officer, Agendia Inventor, researcher, professor and businesswoman: Laura van 't Veer wears many hats. She invented a gene-based breast cancer test that helps doctors decide whether a patient needs to undergo chemotherapy. Since winning the European Inventor Award in 2015, Laura’s inventi...

Moderator: Nigel Clarke, expert in patent information EPO Guest: Jens Horstmannshoff, examiner EPO From tape recorders to “streaming wars”, the pace of change in audiovisual technologies is accelerating. Meet Jens Horstmannshoff , whose work you’ve probably benefitted from unknowingly while watching your favourite TV series. Jens shares his views on 3D televisions, the new frontiers of streaming,...

Moderator: Francesco Zaccà, Principal Director in Mobility & Mechatronics, EPO Guests: Yann Ménière, EPO Chief Economist, Norbert Wienold, patent examiner in ICT, databases and business methods  Yann Ménière, EPO Chief Economist joins Norbert Wienold, patent examiner in ICT, databases and business methods to discuss the latest economic study on the patent trends for technologies which ena...

Moderator: Fernando Tiberini Guest: Oliver Hayden, Director, TranslaTUM Blood tells a story and if you could read it, you would know how healthy a person is. Oliver Hayden has spent his career leading ground-breaking research into blood analysis and is driving accurate diagnoses in diseases ranging from malaria to the coronavirus. The former European Inventor Award winner also provides a glimpse o...

Moderator: Jeremy Philpott, communications manager, EPO Guests: Ilja Rudyk, EPO senior economist and Thomas Bereuter, EPO innovation support manager  Ilja Rudyk, EPO senior economist joins Thomas Bereuter, innovation support manager at the European Patent Academy, to discuss their latest scoreboard on patent commercialisation by universities and public research organisations (PROs). The score...

Moderator: James Nurton, IP journalist Guest: António Campinos, EPO President What impact has the COVID-19 pandemic had on the EPO? How has productivity been affected? Will video conferences fix the backlog of cases? Is the Strategic Plan 2023 still relevant? What does the New Normal mean? And when will we see AI patent examination? EPO President António Campinos answers to these and more question...

Moderator: Nigel Clarke, expert in patent information EPO Guest: Timea Garlati, examiner EPO Whether you consider food and drink, medicines, cosmetics or Christmas trees, packaging technologies tend to be crucial in allowing us to take products home for instant use without a second thought. Join Timea Garlati for more on the challenges involved in making this possible and how the latest advances i...

Moderator: Fernando Tiberini Guest: Thomas Tuschl, Professor of Biochemistry, Rockefeller University New York is the city that never sleeps but the coronavirus pandemic forced the it into hibernation. Resident and world-leading biochemist Thomas Tuschl has taken up the fight, exploring potential new treatments. The European Inventor Award finalist is also pushing boundaries that may lead to soluti...

Moderator: Nigel Clarke, expert in patent information EPO Guest: Cécile Fayos, examiner EPO As personalised medicine takes off, Cécile Fayos talks about the role of ethics and the stories behind a selection of pharmaceutical blockbusters. Join Cécile to learn more about how the modern patent system dovetails with traditional medicine used for centuries.

Moderator: Fernando Tiberini Guest: Elmar Mock, Inventor and entrepreneur There are few who think outside the box quite like Elmar Mock . There are also few who have been as prolific – Elmar is named as the inventor or co-inventor in 178 patent families and has worked on some 800 projects. But what makes the co-inventor of the famous Swatch tick? How does he approach the inventive process? Inventi...

Moderator: Nigel Clarke, expert in patent information EPO Guest: Pau Montes, examiner EPO Radiation diagnostics has come a long way after its accidental discovery in the late nineteenth century. Now routinely used in modern medicine, it once got a little help from the Beatles, whose record sales contributed to financing a major breakthrough in CT scanning. Meet Pau Montes to learn more about the f...

Moderator: Nigel Clarke, expert in patent information, EPO Simon Bennett , energy technology analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA), joins EPO patent examiners Giuliano Gregori and Stefano Meini to discuss the latest innovation trends in battery and electricity storage technologies. This is essential listening for anyone interested in hopeful responses to the urgent question of climate c...

Moderator: Fernando Tiberini Guest: Luke Alphey, Group Leader, Arthropod Genetics, The Pirbright Institute According to a World Health Organisation fact sheet, half of the world’s population is at risk of contracting dengue, a deadly mosquito-borne viral infection. Luke Alphey has spent two decades developing DNA-based solutions to slow the spread of disease. His current research looks at gene dri...

Moderator: Nigel Clarke, expert in patent information EPO Guest: Rob Chapman, examiner EPO The entire world population has rarely experienced a greater need for research into vaccines and antibodies than now. Meet Rob Chapman to learn about the latest advances in the quest to boost all our immune responses.

Moderator: Fernando Tiberini Guest: Helen Lee, CEO, Diagnostics for the real world Helen Lee left a career in industry to work on an invention that would be a game-changer in treating viruses such as HIV. Her device won a 2016 European Inventor Award and is now deployed several developing regions and is part of programmes to detect mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In 2020, Helen and her team d...

Moderator: Nigel Clarke, expert in patent information EPO Guest: Xavier Dauw , examiner EPO Nanotechnology is invisible to the eye but has an enormous impact on semiconductors and a whole range of other fields, from organic chemistry to molecular biology. Meet Xavier Dauw , a passionate expert on the materials used in the electronics that will drive our future, especially when it comes to artifici...

Moderator: Anton Versluis, Team Manager Pattern Recognition, EPO Guest: Steve Lindsey, CEO, Lontra Guided by the principal of using engineering to change the world, Steve Lindsey invented a new type of compressor that cuts energy usage by some 30%. He applies the kind of thinking that revolutionised the consumer world to industry. The result? The UK’s first smart factory, where a network of connec...