Talk innovation: unlocking technology

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 look at this source of industrial turbulence, as she terms it, to better understand where the digital changes in cars come from, and who is driving them.

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 policy makers with  a valuable tool to assess how their funding of academic research spurs innovation among the surrounding businesses.

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 claimed? In his podcast Dietmar Harhoff proposes a method based on semantic analysis to shed some light on the standard-essentiality of patent portfolios.

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 part of a large clinical trial which showed that many patients can overcome cancer without the devastating effects of chemotherapy.

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 part of a large clinical trial which showed that many patients can overcome cancer without the devastating effects of chemotherapy.

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, and the role of technologies such as 5G in the next wave of digital transformation.

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 enable our data-driven economy. “Data is the new oil” – whoever has the most data has the most wealth and power! The study reveals that the growth in patents for e.g. smart, connected devices, combined with 5G and AI, is running at five times the rate for other technical fields. So-called “4IR” technologies now comprise 11% of all patent applications to the EPO, and could be contributing over €2.2 trillion to the EU’s GDP by the end of this decade. The impact of these disruptive technologies on industry, our economies and our lives will be enormous and, as our experts explain, some countries are advancing more than others.

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 of his work at the Technical University of Munich.

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 scoreboard reveals the routes to market for inventions developed in universities and PROs – whether through patent licensing or sales, collaborations with industry (locally or cross-border) or by founding start-ups and spin-outs. The barriers to commercialisation differ widely across Europe. This scoreboard follows the one published in 2019 concerning SMEs.

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 questions in this podcast.