"This year we once again achieved a record number of innovations, both in the number of patent filings and the number of approved patents," said Angelika Andres, corporate director of intellectual property rights at Endress+Hauser. The company had 309 invention disclosures as well as 537 granted patent applications.
Roughly one-third of the patent filings are related to the Industrial Internet of Things, digital communications and instrument diagnostics.
According to the company, each invention undergoes a multistage internal evaluation process before submission to the patent office, usually within four months. To handle the stream of inventions, in 2016 an internal patent department was created in the U.S. Four specialists at the Greenwood, Indiana location are responsible for protecting the technical innovations. This team has full responsibility for handling all patent filings from the Group companies located in the U.S., plus up to 80 percent of the overseas filings.
Matthias Altendorf, CEO of the Endress+Hauser Group, as well as other members of the executive board, welcomed more than 300 guests to the annual Innovators’ Meeting, which was held in late March in Saint-Louis, France. Employees involved in patent filings presented their innovations during the company’s get-together.
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