European Commission Honors Home-Grown Tech Inventors

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April 11, 2006 (12:56 PM EDT)

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By W. David Gardner , TechWeb Technology News

In an effort to boost recognition of European innovation, the European Commission (EC) and European Patent Office (EPO) announced the names of inventors to receive lifetime achievement awards including men who pioneered the microchip and the MP3 format.

Italy native Federico Faggin was cited as the "father" of the microchip and Karlheinz Brandenburg of Germany was named as the inventor of the MP3 format. Both had strong connections to Silicon Valley in the U.S. Faggin did his most innovative work at Intel in California and, later, at the company he founded, Zilog. Brandenburg's work gained traction when the German scientist took his work to Silicon Valley in 1997.

The international jury established by the EC and the EPO also named 11 recipients for "European Inventor of the Year" from 9 countries. Most hailed from industrial and academic team backgrounds.

"The panel's selection is clear evidence that major R&D achievements, especially in marketable high-tech fields, are nowadays primarily the result of teamwork and co-operation," said EPO president Alain Pompidou in a statement. "Obtaining patent protection for this research is a key to successful product marketing."

The sponsors of the program said by citing the inventions and innovations, they want to strengthen Europe's position as a dynamic center for science and innovation in the context of the European Union's Lisbon Agenda, which seeks to improve economic growth and competition among the EC's nation members.

The jury also nominated a non-electronics inventor for a lifetime achievement award, the U.K.'s James Dyson, an inventor with 130 patents to his name, who developed the vacuum cleaner principle that bears his name.

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