Innovators’ Meeting Celebrates Record Amount of Patents

Over 200 inventors from the whole of the Endress & Hauser Group (Switzerland) have gathered for their “Innovators’ Meeting 2008” in
Eimeldingen / South Germany near Basel. They celebrated the new all-time record of 182 patent applications in 2007 – and cheered the winners of
the “Patent Rights Incentive Awards” which honours patents with a particularly substantial and positive effect on business development.
“Our ‘Patent Rights Incentive Program’ has really shown how effective it is”, said Dieter Schaudel, board member in charge of Technology,
Engineering and IT. “Since we launched our incentive program eight years ago, the number of annual patent applications of the Endress+Hauser
Group has more than trebled”.

“There are people behind Endress+Hauser’s ideas and innovations. Every day our inventors tackle and find new solutions to old and new problems”, said Klaus Endress, CEO of the Endress+Hauser Group. “They have vast technological knowledge, the right kind of tools, and they know what the market needs. Their work allows our enterprise to work on new, targetspecific and efficient solutions for our customers”.

Endress+Hauser knows exactly what their inventors’ work is worth. “Our people’s achievements are extraordinary and outstanding”, stresses Dieter Schaudel. “It may not be all that obvious at first glance, but our company’s success is closely linked to the creative spirit of
our inventors”.

With the Innovators’ Meeting and the “Patent Rights Incentive Program” Endress+Hauser shows its appreciation and how important the inventors
are for the enterprise. This year over 200 inventors from the whole of the Endress+Hauser Group met at their “Innovators’ Meeting 2008”. Gathering at the Sichtwerk, the smart minds of the group presented their inventions, exchanged knowledge and experience and looked ahead to a future full of new ideas. The highlight of the event was the time when Klaus Endress and Dieter Schaudel presented the “Patent Rights Incentive Awards” for the most important patents granted in 2007, each
with a prize money of 10,000 Euro.

“As a global player Endress+Hauser must safeguard and protect its inventions worldwide”, explained Angelika Andres, head of Endress+
Hauser’s PatServe patent division. “Our team of 13 works hard every day to protect the intellectual property of our Group”. Set up about ten years ago, PatServe has meanwhile filed patents for 1,100 inventions, 182 last year alone. Today, Endress+Hauser holds over 3,900 living patents and patent applications.