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WIPO Award Winners

November 2007

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.

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13-year old Alex was named Argentina’s Best Inventor of 2007. (Photo Percil.com)

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.

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15 disabled inventors and artists in Azerbaijan won WIPO Awards for achievements spanning poetry and geo-physics. (Photo: WIPO)

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 asset, and that all members of society should have an equal right and equal opportunities to contribute to the inventive, technological and creative development of their countries, and to have their contributions recognized. Through the awards to these disabled scientists and artists – whose achievements span fields as diverse as poetry, engraving and geophysics - WIPO hopes to further the recognition of inventors, innovators and artists around the world, able-bodied or disabled, regardless of age, gender and nationality.

Viet Nam

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Winners of Viet Nam’s Nationwide Creativity Competition for Youth. (Courtesy of CEPIN)

Viet Nam’s third Nationwide Creativity Competition for Youth, held in September, attracted some 1000 young inventors bursting with ideas. The event, which aims to promote and encourage the inventors of tomorrow, was broadcast live on national television and abroad. The government actively supports the Competition and many government ministers, including the Viet Nam’s Vice-President, participated in the ceremony. WIPO was pleased to support the event by awarding three WIPO gold medals for Best Young Inventor.

The WIPO Magazine is intended to help broaden public understanding of intellectual property and of WIPO’s work, and is not an official document of WIPO. The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of WIPO concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. This publication is not intended to reflect the views of the Member States or the WIPO Secretariat. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by WIPO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.