SEAT’s Inventors Awards have once again rewarded company employees for their contributions and ideas, and in 2015 their inventiveness resulted in 39 new patents. The awards aim to foster a culture of innovation among workers by encouraging them to present inventions that will increase and protect the company’s know-how and contribute innovative solutions to all the company.
In 2015 a total of 122 inventions devised by employees were submitted, which led to 39 patent registrations. Of these, 26 are national and the remaining 13 are international in scope. Prominent among the patents presented were proposals dealing with improvements and new solutions or applications relating to technology and product, as well as in the area of sales and marketing.
The 2016 edition of the Inventors Awards rewarded the wheel camber system, which controls the wheel camber angle on racing vehicles with Best International Patent, while the Best National Patent award went to the pulsing ignition switch. In terms of Innovation, the Parkfinder BCN app, which displays available nearby parking spaces in the city of Barcelona, was selected among all the proposals as the best.
SEAT Vice-President for R&D Dr. Matthias Rabe, said that “for the automobile industry and especially for what lies ahead, the future is about electric mobility, it’s about automatic driving and connectivity, digitalisation. We need innovation in these areas in order to stay ahead; we need good ideas and we need to protect them”.
Since SEAT launched its programme in 2006, the company’s current portfolio features 285 patents in force. The Inventors Awards are a sign of SEAT’s commitment to its employees and of how the company promotes their active participation and a culture of innovation in the workplace. In addition, these awards aim to encourage them to devise even more and better innovations to be protected.
