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Women in IP - Bremen

"Women in IP" – Innovation and creativity are female

This year’s World Intellectual Property Day is dedicated to women: Event though almost half of the world’s population are female, women file significantly fewer patent applications than men, for instance. This needs to be changed, as women’s ingenuity and point of view shape the world. On the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day, the DPMA, together with its cooperation partners, the patent information centres, presents women inventors, designers and trade mark proprietors from all over Germany. The good news is there are many of them and the ideas they have implemented are quite different. Get inspired and join our tour of Germany to discover exciting stories about women in IP. Our journey will start in Bremen, in the northwest of Germany.

InnoWi GmbH – "Women in IP" from Bremen

The aim of externer Link InnoWi GmbH, the patent information centre (PIZ) in Bremen, is to protect and promote inventive talent and creativity. For this purpose, the patent information centre has been providing researchers with support and advice on how to protect their inventions for more than 20 years. From patent protection to patent exploitation. The Bremen PIZ also provides companies and founders with comprehensive advice on IP rights such as trade marks, designs, patents and utility models.

Dr Lieselotte Riegger, managing director of InnoWi GmbH, emphasises: "In our day-to-day work, we regularly deal with women’s ideas for research or for founding an enterprise. Accordingly, the question is not whether there are such women, but why, in this world, so many of them still do not have the same opportunities as men and often do not even believe in their own potential. Therefore, a women and IP day is an extraordinarily suitable occasion to inspire girls and women worldwide with role models and, at the same time, to offer a platform for the patents of ingenious female researchers and successful female founders."

Patented procedure for safe cancer diagnosis

Dr Nina Winter and her colleagues of the University of Bremen have developed a safe procedure for testicular cancer diagnosis. After a patent for the test procedure had been applied for, mirdetect was founded in 2016. The company, with its own production facilities, is located in Bremerhaven. Since 2021, the test has been in use in laboratories.

Biologist and Chief Executive Officer at mirdetect
Nina Winter

"Astonishingly, people quite often ask me why a woman sells a testicular cancer product, of all things. Let’s be honest: No one is astonished if men sell a test for breast cancer. That’s why this makes me smile."

For additional information, please visit the website of mirdetect

IP applications/IP rights

  • EP3535417A1 or EP3289095B1 "Detection of nucleic acid molecules"

Facing the challenges of the future – with three-parent plants

Prof Rita Groß-Hardt, molecular geneticist at the University of Bremen, is doing research into a breeding strategy for plants with three parents in order to cross crop plants such as potatoes or sugar beets with wild, more climate-resilient plants. This is a major contribution to facing the challenges of the future.

As recently as January 2023, Rita Groß-Hardt and her project partners were awarded funding worth millions by the European Innovation Council (EIC).

Molecular geneticist
Prof Rita Groß-Hardt

"In the light of rapid global warming and world population growth, our innovation is of central economic and social importance. Three-parent crosses can accelerate breeding methods and circumvent hybridisation barriers. This allows climate-resilient wild plants that have so far not been compatible to be used for breeding. In addition, the period until climate-adapted seed varieties are brought to market can be reduced significantly."

For additional information, please visit the website of the University of Bremen

IP applications include

  • EP (patent UN523-7) "One-step hybridisation" – published on 22 May 2019 (EP3485020A1)

Optimisation of sustainable fibre biocomposites

In our present living environment, fibre biocomposites are indispensable. They are around us everywhere in our life, whether in local or long-distance traffic, in our cars, on the airplane or on the bike. There are also various uses in sports, e.g. in tennis rackets, surfboards or sailing boat hulls. Dr Nina Graupner is a researcher at the University of Bremen. Together with the renowned Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, she has already successfully applied for a patent.

The Biological Materials Group at the University of Bremen
Dr Nina Graupner

"In the area of sustainable materials research, I have so far not experienced that men and women are treated unequally, even though, in this field, men still outnumber women. Patience, perseverance and frustration tolerance are the skills you need when doing research. In my view, personal interests therefore tend to be more important to academic success than the respective sex."

For additional information, please visit the website of Hochschule Bremen

IP applications/IP rights

  • DE (patent HB154-4) "Biocomposite" – joint invention with the Fraunhofer ISC – granted on 2 December 2021 (DE102017211562B4)
  • DE (patent HB164-2) "Collapsible mandrel" – published on 29 September 2022 (DE102021107582A1)

All IP documents are available in DEPATISnet.

To be continued soon...

...with "Women in IP" from Bavaria.

Last updated: 29 November 2024