The digital computer and the healthy lactobacillus Bulgaricus found in the traditional Bulgarian yoghurt can hardly exhaust the list of inventions that have made Bulgaria famous worldwide. Some 300 invention applications annually are made in this country, with 50 to 70% of them getting approved to obtain a protected patent.

This year the Bulgarian Patent Authority turned 65. The official anniversary event is due on 8 November when the Inventor of the Year prizes will be given out, and leading inventors will be officially written down in a special Golden Book of Bulgarian Inventions.

The current legislation in this field has been aligned to European law. A bill has been drawn up, for the creation of a Chamber of Representatives for Intellectual Property. It will guarantee uniform conditions of protection across the EU. This country takes part in working groups for the creation of a Uniform European Patent System and a specialized unified court for it. The Unified Patent Court is going to consider claims for the validation of inventions and rule on disputes over rights on them in EU. Its work is aimed to cut red tape, as well as the number of lawsuits over patents. So far, inventors willing to get all-European protection of their inventions should validate their patents in all 28 member-countries of the bloc. This translates into 28 lawsuits conducted in every country with legislation varying and bureaucracy standing in the way. On top of that, the procedure us also rather expensive. This is one reason for Europe’s disadvantage in awarding patents compared to USA and China. Statistics suggest that in 2011, 62,000 patents were issued in Europe, versus 224,000 in USA and 172,000 in China.

Despite the modest number of patents issued in Bulgaria, it turns out that a few Bulgarian inventions are acknowledged internationally. Researchers of Bulgarian descent have invented various devices that have become part of our daily life and have changed the world. Among them is the airbag invented by engineer Assen Jordanoff. In our time airbags are an important part of automobile safety and have saved many human lives. There is another major Bulgarian invention in motor vehicles – the automatic automotive transmission devised by Rumen Antonov that cuts fuel spending and is applicable in smaller cars. The patented invention has been sold to major automotive companies including Honda, Renault, Peugeot, Rover, DaimlerChrysler and Suzuki.

There are a few Bulgarian inventions in medicine. The drug Nivalin has wide use as anesthetic, as well as in surgery, physiotherapy and psychiatry. The Bulgarian pharmacologist Dimitar Paskov was the first to extract the substance from a local plant, the Summer Snowflake (Leucojum). He has some twenty inventions in medicine.

We cannot possibly imagine present-day offices without the photocopier. However, it became possible owing to Bulgarian Academician Georgi Nadjakov who studied photoelectricity back in 1937. The digital wristwatch is another Bulgarian invention, the work of Petar Petrov. In 1969 that wristwatch was being sold at 2100 USD. In 1960s Petar Petrov worked for NASA under the Apollo Program and his company Care Electric designed the first wireless heart monitor still in wide use in hospitals across the world.

On articles from Az Buki monthly 
Editor: Rumyana Tsvetkova
English version: Daniela Konstantinova