The first five Earthshot Prize Winners were announced this week at a glittering London ceremony that was broadcast live on BBC1. Each of the winners received £1million and a global network of professional and technical support to scale and roll out their environmental innovations.
The ceremony, the first in a series to be held annually for the next decade, was the culmination of a 10-month global search with over 750 nominations from around the world. Fifteen Finalists were chosen through a rigorous selection process.
CIPA advised the Earthshot organisers on all intellectual property issues. A team of volunteer patent attorneys from CIPA performed due diligence checks on the finalists and provided them with any intellectual property advice that they required.
From next year CIPA will also be an affiliated nominator organisation, able to propose entrants for the awards.
Earthshot’s Rachel Moriarty, Head of Prize Design and Impact, said: “In our first year running The Earthshot Prize, we wanted to ensure that our selection process was robust and rigorous, to select the finalists with the greatest potential and ability to scale their impact and help us reach our Earthshots.
CIPA assisted us with an integral part of this screening and due diligence process to evaluate the different aspects of IP that could be at play, acting with diligence and professionalism.
“CIPA not only gave everyone involved the confidence and assurance in the finalists’ solutions by performing this due diligence, but also gave invaluable support to the finalists with ongoing IP advice to scale their impact.”
The Earthshot Prize Winners for 2021 were:
AEM Electrolyser and its parent company Enaptor have been working for a number of years with intellectual property firm Mathys & Squire, supporting them in the growth and valuation of their IP portfolio as they expand and revolutionise the world of renewable energy.
All the winners were connected to the Awards Ceremony by global broadcast, where The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were joined by Sir David Attenborough, and a host of stars and performers including Ed Sheeran and Coldplay.
The Earthshot Prize will travel to the USA next year. Nominations for the 2022 Prize will open in January 2022.
The team of Chartered Patent Attorneys who took part in the Earthshot IP pro bono screening and support service came from the following firms and organisations: AA Thornton; Abel and Imray; Barnes IP; Carpmaels; Climefort; D Young & Co; Forresters IP; FRKelly; Haseltine Lake Kempner; HGF; IK-IP; Invicta IP; Kilburn & Strode; Marks and Clerk; Nottingham Trent University; Petmedix; Potter Clarkson; Reddie & Grose; Sagittarius IP and Sarah Dixon Consulting.
Date Published: 22 October 2021
