Russian Patents Blog

(Russian patent news) Marina Myagkova, from the Russian Federation, received an award for inventing a drug screening test which diagnoses whether a person has consumed narcotics within a period of two to four months.

GENEVA – The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) presented on April 20, 2007, two awards to inventors at the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions as part of the Organization’s commitment to promoting innovation and recognition of inventors worldwide, a press release by WIPO stated.

The distinctions were presented to the best invention by a woman and the best invention by a national from a developing country. This is the twenty-seventh consecutive year in which WIPO has presented awards at the Geneva Fair.

Marina Myagkova, from the Russian Federation, received an award for inventing a drug screening test which diagnoses whether a person has consumed narcotics within a period of two to four months.

The second award went to a national of Congo, Tsengué Tsengué, for the invention of a continuous and adjustable solar-powered dryer for agricultural use which collects thermal solar energy, stocks it and releases it on demand.

The two WIPO award winners were selected by an international jury designated by the organizers of the Geneva Exhibition. The WIPO award consists of a medal and a certificate signed by the Director General of WIPO, Dr. Kamil Idris, together with a cash prize of $2,000.

Since the first WIPO awards were presented at the 8th Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions in 1979, 58 WIPO medals have been presented at the annual fair to 63 inventors from 35 countries.

The winners include 37 inventors from developing countries, 24 women and 2 young inventors. The Geneva fair is a unique opportunity for inventors and researchers from all over the world to showcase their inventions and research results and to attract business partners for joint ventures or licensing agreements.

The WIPO awards seek to stimulate inventive activity around the world, particularly in developing countries. They serve to attract and enhance public recognition of inventors and researchers, and their work. Offering these awards also improves the image of inventors through recognition of their merits as creators who contribute to national wealth creation and development.

Since the launch of this program in 1979, over 1,000 WIPO medals have been awarded to inventors from more than 100 countries, including women and young inventors.

Schemes that recognize and reward inventors and creators bolster public awareness of the contributions made by inventors and help to nourish an atmosphere that promotes innovation and creativity, thereby supporting economic and technological development efforts.

WIPO’s awards are a complement to the Organization’s innovation promotion activities and its support of the national Intellectual Property (IP) strategies of its member states. WIPO collaborates with member states upon request to assist in the development of national IP strategies.

The Division on IP and New Technologies has also developed practical materials and tools for IP asset management for small and medium-sized enterprises and Research and Development (R&D) institutions, including training materials on IP audit, technology licensing, patent drafting and IP valuation.

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LED developed in Russia in 1920s

By Nick Farrell
The Inquirer

CLAIMS THAT the LED was invented by four independent American research groups in 1962 are false, according to New Scientist magazine.

The mag’s hacks have found that the LED was invented by a Russian genius around forty years earlier.

Oleg Vladimirovich Losev was a radio technician who noticed that diodes used in radio receivers emitted light when current was passed through them. In 1927, he published details in a Russian journal of the first ever LED.

Details of Losev’s invention have been dug up by Nikolay Zheludev, at the University of Southampton.

It is not as if the discoveries were locked in Russia and never escaped. Losev also published on his discoveries in German and British journals where they were ignored. More than sixteen papers written between 1924 and 1930 he comprehensively detailed the function of his LED.

He used Einstein’s quantum theory to explain the way electrons dropping in energy produced the light without releasing heat. When he wrote to the man himself, but Einstein didn’t reply. In 1927 he Losev filed a patent for a ‘light relay’ that used his devices ‘for fast telegraphic and telephone communication, transmission of images and other applications…’ None of his work was picked up and Losev died of hunger in 1942 during the siege of Leningrad (aka St.Petersburg), at the age of 39.

Zheludev discovered that in November 1941, Losev tried to get a paper based on a discovery that using semiconductors, a three-terminal system may be constructed analogous to a vacuum triode. Zheludev thinks that he may have invented the transistor.

Download Zheludev’s full paper here.

Source: New Scientist article

Russian Prior Art search

Some of Oleg Losev’s patents (to get full text copies and/or translation of these patents, please contact PatentsfromRU.com)

Light relay (Soviet patent SU12191, 1927.02.28)
Light relay (Soviet patent SU25657, 1931.02.26)
Geterodine radio receiver (Soviet patent SU467, 1923.12.18)
Device For Locating Oscillating Points of Contact Detector (Soviet patent SU472, 1923.12.18)
A method to Generate Endless Oscillations (Soviet patent SU996, 1922.02.21)
A method to control reoscillation in crystadine receivers (Soviet patent SU4904, 1926.03.29)
A method of prevention of occurrence of electric fluctuations in reception contours of intralamps transformers of low frequency (Soviet patent SU11101, 1927.02.28)
Electrolytes rectifier (Soviet patent SU28548, 1930.11.27)
A method for frequency transformation (Soviet patent SU29875, 1926.03.24)
A method to produce photoresistor (Soviet patent SU32067, 1933.05.08)
A method to produce photoresistor (Soviet patent SU39883, 1934.01.21)
A contact rectifier (Soviet patent SU33231, 1931.04.29)

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A new IP law of Russia signed, effective as of January 1 2008.

The new law, known as Part IV of the Russian Civil Code, incorporates all the existing Russian IP laws and includes various amendments to improve current legislation.

Most notable changes are:

* Interested parties only may submit a request for termination of a trademark registration on the grounds of non-use to the Board for Patent Disputes. Currently, any third party may file such a request;

* Trademark use by parties under the control of the mark owner other than licensees may now constitute due use. Previously a trademark would be deemed property used only if it was applied on the goods and/or services for which it was registered and/or their packaging by the trademark owner or a person to whom the trademark owner granted such right by virtue of a licence, subject to mandatory recordal with the Russian Trademark Office; and

* The control by mark owners over the quality of a licensee’s goods is now an entitlement rather than an obligation. Previously, trademark owners would have had to ensure that the quality of a licensee’s goods was not inferior to the trademark owner’s goods. However, under the amended provision, mark owners are jointly liable for claims addressed to the licensee as the producer of goods.

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