Best Invention Awards Ceremony

On June 6, the ceremony for the III Edition of the Awards for the Best Invention protected by Industrial Property Rights was held. The event was held, as in previous editions, in the gardens of the School of Industrial Organization (EOI), although unexpected rains made it necessary to move the ceremony to the auditorium.

Alejandro Muñoz and Marisa Mañanos, journalists and science communicators, were in charge of presenting and dynamizing the ceremony. The institutional opening was carried out by José Bayón, director of the EOI and host of the ceremony, and María José de Concepción, director of the Patents and Technological Information Department of the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO).

Before it began, the winner of the Best Patent of the II Edition, Arantxa Esparza, congratulated the finalists and winners and shared her experience with them.

Next, the awards for the best Utility Model granted in 2022 were presented. In the category of "Best Utility Model of a young inventor" a mention was awarded to Jesús Manuel Rodríguez Rego for his device to monitor cracks in buildings and load and unload tests, and the Prize was awarded to María Cervera Cano for her device to hold ultrasound probes to identify the muscle groups involved in non-specific low back pain.

The mention in the category "Best Utility Model of a Woman Inventor" was awarded to Encarnación Pilar Aguayo Giménez for her cosmetic product made from fruit and vegetable pulp. In turn, María Visa Boladeras was awarded the Prize in recognition of her device for collecting pallets without the need to stack them previously, which improves the safety of workers.

Finally, in the absolute category of "Best Utility Model", Justo González Segado was a finalist for an integral system for suction of materials in water and the mention went to Ramón Pascual Mollá Vaya for his water saving device for sanitary hot water installations. The jury awarded the Prize for the best Utility Model to José Reina García and his multi-purpose window with a structure for installing solar panels on it and generating energy for self-consumption.

The Best Patent Awards also have three categories. In the category aimed at recognizing the best patents granted in 2023 to young inventors, Eduardo Díaz Torres was a finalist for his pressure measuring plunger for 3D printing platforms for extrusion of semi-solid masses, and the device for characterizing the rough profile of a fabric sample by Roberto Fernández Fernández received a mention. The prize for the best patent was awarded to Abel Martínez Rodrigo and his invention of a synthetic multi-epitope chimera as a vaccine and treatment for the treatment of cancer.

Milagrosa Santos Hernández was the finalist in the category "Best Patent by a Woman Inventor" for the Rutstroemia calopus strain that increases plant growth and development in crops. The mention in this category went to Loreto Valenzuela Gutíérrez for having invented an adaptable linear Fresnel solar collector. The Jury recognized the patent of María del Pilar Martín Duque for the use of breast milk exosomes as a vehicle for radioisotopes for the diagnosis and treatment of neoplasms.

The last category was the absolute category for the "Best Patent" in which Juan Gonzalo Wangüemert was the finalist for a sub-longitudinal periodic waveguide of bricked wave. The mention went to José Javier López Cascales for inventing gas diffusion layers for fuel cells. Finally, the award for Best Patent went to Alberto Sánchez González for having invented a procedure and a system for aligning the facets of a solar field heliostat in a simpler, more precise and more economical way than the prior art systems.

The awards in the different categories were presented by José Bayón López, María José de Concepción, Aida Fernández González, Undersecretary for Economy, Trade and Enterprise; José María Calleja Rovira, Secretary General of the SPTO; Teresa Riesgo Alcaide, Secretary General for Innovation and Pablo Garde, Undersecretary for Industry and Tourism.