Goodyear Honors 353 Associates for Inventions, Patents

AKRON, Ohio, May 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has recognized more than 350 of its technical associates for their inventions and innovations.

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The associates, who work in the company's Technical Centers in Akron, Ohio, and Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg, as well as manufacturing locations around the world, were responsible for 215 U.S. patents and 21 trade secrets in 2004. Goodyear held a banquet for its North American innovators in Akron last night. A similar event was held in Luxembourg on April 29.

The company recognized 16 associates as 2004 "Inventors of the Year," and six others were awarded special honors in recognition of their contributions over the course of their careers with the tiremaker.

"When we set out to fundamentally change our company two years ago, we knew innovating new products and processes would be essential," said Robert J. Keegan, Goodyear's chairman and chief executive officer.

"The role of our engineers and scientists has been critical to our market success, as well as our ongoing cultural transformation," he added.

In the last year, Goodyear introduced new products including the Fortera and Wrangler featuring SilentArmor Technology; the Dunlop Direzza DZ101 and Dunlop Grandtrek in North America; the Goodyear HydraGrip in Europe and the Dunlop SportMaxx to both European and North American markets. Goodyear has said that its Assurance tires, introduced in 2004, are the most successful new product launch in the company's history.

Special awards issued at this year's banquets include: Inventors of the Year

Akron, Ohio: Bill Bedont, Gary Burg, Ron Loeffler, Dan Schuster, Jeff Sevart, Don Helle, Ching-Chih Lee, Wil Looman, Minwu Yao and Austin Young

Lincoln, Neb.: Darren Moncrief

Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg: Yves Donckels, Sylvie Dubru, Serge Imhoff, Rene Reuter and Frank Schmitz

"100" Club

Bill Hsu, a research and development associate based in Akron, became the seventh Goodyear associate to achieve a combination of at least 100 patents and trade secrets.

Silver Coin Awards

The Silver Coin Award is given to inventors who achieved various ingenuity milestones through their career. Dave Zanzig, Luxembourg, has achieved 60 patents and trade secrets, while new recipients at the 20 level are: Jean Bergh, Luxembourg; Don Gilliam, Akron; Kevin Legge, Akron; and Christian Labbe, Luxembourg.

Goodyear is the world's largest tire company. The company manufactures tires, engineered rubber products and chemicals in more than 90 facilities in 28 countries around the world. Goodyear employs approximately 80,000 people worldwide.