WIPO Award Winners

The WIPO Awards Program continues to grow and to highlight special groups of inventors and creators, such as young people, women and the disabled, with the objective of demonstrating the inclusiveness of innovation and creativity. Many of these events receive broad press coverage, helping to promote innovators and bring them recognition. The WIPO Magazine takes this opportunity to highlight a few of the events that took place in September and October.

Argentina

In September the Biro Foundation prize for Argentina's Best Inventor of 2007 went to 13-year old Alex Pacagnini. "Despite his age, he has a very good track record and is very prolific," said the judges. His many inventions include a pocket heater, a container for dispensing mayonnaise and mustard on hamburgers, an organic gas generator and improvements to oscilloscopes that measure variations in tension on the screen of a cathode ray tube. The 13-year old also received a WIPO gold medal for Best Young Inventor of the year. Alex started participating in the Inventors' Forum five years ago, at the age of eight.

The third National Competition for Innovative Products, INNOVAR, held in Buenos Aires in October, attracted hundreds of entries in the four competition categories: innovative product, industrial design, applied research and agro-innovation. A WIPO Medal for the best overall project went to Messrs. Gabriel Bilmes and Oscar Eduardo Martínez, co-inventors of a laser device that measures the cleanliness of any surface.

Azerbaijan

In cooperation with the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Ministry of Labor and Social protection of Population of Azerbaijan, WIPO honored the creative and innovative achievements of 15 disabled inventors, innovators and artists at an exceptional ceremony held in Baku, Azerbaijan, in October. The event highlighted the fact that intellectual property is an important national...