Endress+Hauser is a Swiss-based globally operating process, laboratory instrumentation, and automation supplier. The Innovators’ Meeting at the company honors its employees for economically significant and especially creative innovations. Awards are also handed out for process improvements or the reuse of existing solutions. The 20th annual event, originally scheduled for 2020, was held this year while celebrating a new record in achieving 764 approved patents.
Since 2000, Endress+Hauser has invited all employees involved in patent filings to the annual Innovators’ Meeting. No in-person events were held in the past two years because of the pandemic. The company thus, used this year as an opportunity to celebrate the event’s 20th anniversary by inviting 360 innovators to attend the two-day session at Europa-Park in Rust, Germany to be creative and celebrate with one another.
“Many ideas arise through coincidental encounters and the sharing of information. Together we are simply more creative and innovative”, said Dr. Andreas Mayr, the Chief Operating Officer at Endress+Hauser Group.
Patent figures at a high level
“Innovation continues to be a driver of our success and our innovation rate is high. The numbers nevertheless show us that the innovation process is suffering from a lack of personal interaction,” added Dr. Mayr.
With 258 initial filings, Endress+Hauser is slightly under the prior year’s figure of 276. One reason to celebrate is the new record of 764 worldwide patent approvals. Since many innovations in multiple countries are filed as patents, this figure is regularly above the number of internal patent submissions. The intellectual property rights portfolio, which protects the Endress+Hauser products, solutions, and services from imitators, now comprises a total of 8,600 patents and patent filings.
Endress+Hauser places a high value on research and development. In 2021, the Group invested more than 210 million euros in R&D, which equates to 7.4 percent of sales. Furthermore, Dr. Mayr said that “This ensures that our pipeline continues to be filled with new products. We will introduce more than 30 new products to the market this year as well.”
Focus on personal encounters
“This year’s Innovators’ Meeting is designed to offer a platform to take advantage of the potential of personal encounters,” said Dr. Christine Koslowski, Director of Intellectual Property Rights at Endress+Hauser. “We expanded the program to two days and brought our innovators together from various Endress+Hauser companies to work on new ideas. Three of these concepts were awarded a financial and time budget to develop them further”, added Dr. Koslowski.
The afternoon of the second day was reserved for a celebration ceremony and other awards presentations. The Innovators’ Meeting honors Endress+Hauser employees for economically significant and especially creative innovations. Under the category of process improvements, more than 100 employees were recognized and given awards.