EPO Tech Day 2022: Accelerating sustainable innovation
On 16 February, almost 7 800 participants
attended the first ever public Tech Day at the European Patent Office. The
online event explored a diverse range of sustainable innovation, and how to
accelerate the development of technologies of transformation required to
sustain planetary health – both human health and the health of our planet.
EPO President António Campinos
opened Tech Day 2022 by acknowledging that „when it comes to sustainability,
there are challenges. Huge challenges. But we have a patent system that can
support the technologies of transformation that will overcome these challenges.
We have a patent system that will foster the innovations needed to meet our
emissions targets, our recycling and other sustainability goals.“
As part of the Office’s efforts
to raise awareness of the role of the patent system, Mr Campinos highlighted
the EPO’s plans to create a patent and innovation observatory later this year
that aims to inform debate on patent insights and analysis. The launch of the
Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court would also help the EPO offer more
support to innovators in Europe, he said.
Philipp Offenberg and Ben Gaddy
of Breakthrough Energy delivered the event’s keynote on accelerating climate
innovation, with a focus on start-ups. They emphasised the urgent need for bold
action on supporting innovation to deliver the European Green Deal. During a
lively roundtable, leading inventors, analysts and scientists then discussed
the transformations that current technology and policy landscapes are
undergoing with a view to achieving greater sustainability.
The discussion drew on major recent
studies published in partnership between the EPO, whose Chief Economist Yann
Ménière was present, and the International Energy Agency, represented on the
panel by Energy Technology Analyst Simon Bennett.
Their analysis was complemented
by inspiring practice-led insights into materials science from the inventors Jane
ní Dhulchaointigh, Managing Director of Sugru, and Christoph Gürtler, Head of
Global Industry Academia Cooperations at Covestro Deutschland. The panel was
completed by Markus Lienkamp, Chair of Automotive Technology at the Technical
University of Munich and moderated by the editor and writer on intellectual
property James Nurton.
The dynamic Tech Day 2022
programme concluded with a series of dialogues on sustainable innovation for planetary
health, in which innovators and EPO experts discussed areas such as e-waste,
green hydrogen, plant-based meat and next-generation vaccines.
A final wrap-up session focussed
on how the EPO is responding to the increasing urgency of meeting the UN’s
Sustainable Development Goals. Principal Director Communication and EPO
Spokesperson Luis Berenguer Giménez began with a reminder of the EPO’s new Young
Inventors Prize to acknowledge and reward innovators aged 30 or under who
are working in the field of sustainability.
Mr Berenguer Giménez was joined
by Vice President Corporate Services Nellie Simon, who highlighted the EPO’s
holistic approach to sustainability, which would help the Office to achieve its
aim of carbon neutrality by 2030. Vice President Patent Granting Process
Stephen Rowan spoke about how the EPO is making its services more accessible to
small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as deepening digital dialogue with
all applicants and making patent knowledge available to everyone. Finally, Vice
President Legal and International Affairs Christoph Ernst emphasised how crucial
digitalisation had been for the purposes of continuing to advance international
co-operation at a time when it is most needed.