On February 11, 2019, the official newsletter of Ukrpatent “Promyslova Vlasnist” (Industrial ownership) published information about the 1000th security document on industrial property objects: inventions and useful models, which were received by the professor of the department of chemical, polymer and silicate engineering of the engineer-chemical faculty , Honored Inventor of Ukraine Igor Mikul’onok. His first invention, “Rollers for the mixing of polymer materials”, was developed during the diploma project in the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and subsequently implemented at the Kyiv-based plant “Bilshovyk” (the First Kyiv Mechanical Plant now). In over than three decades he published his 1000th patent of the utility model “Mixer for liquid media mixing”.
The editorial office of “KP” asked Igor Mikul’onok himself to tell about his way in inventive activity and about which areas are the field of his technical creativity.
- During the inventive activity I became the author and coauthor of thousands of security documents (copyright certificates and patents) of the USSR, the Russian Federation and Ukraine for inventions and utility models (including 400 individual ones). For more than one decade as a professor of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute I have been lecturing the discipline “Intellectual Property and Patent Science” (in different variations) for students of the Faculty of Engineering and Chemistry. Over this time, more than two hundred and fifty students and college students of secondary education have become my colleagues, who received in total over 400 patents. All my students-graduates defend their final dissertations by one or several patents (2005 graduate student of the group LM-93 Olga Granovska has received five of such patents from the diploma project on the topic “Line for the production of non-core roll materials for roller development”). My students-graduates have also repeatedly become winners and prize-winners of the International salons of inventions and new technologies, and students of institutions of secondary education - winners of all-Ukrainian and international competitions of scientific works. Some of my former students even linked their professional activities with Ukrpatent.
The textbook about Fundamentals of Intellectual Property, prepared by me in 2001, has endorsed several editions, spreading across Ukraine in large circulation and has received a high degree of recognition of both students and specialists. Subsequently, this manual turned into a textbook "Intellectual Property" with a stamp of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
"Field" of my inventive activity was and is not limited at all with my scientific specialty (processes and equipment of chemical technology). The inventions, developed by me, relate to all eight sections of the international patent classification - IPC. Once I have even made the "alphabet" of my developments: for each of its letters I "found" at least one invention (or a useful model).
Just as a professor, I do not see the main purpose of my inventive activity in pursuit of profit, but in attracting student youth to creativity. In this I completely agree with the famous Finnish writer Marti Johannes Larni: “Scientific work is not suitable for people who are standing with both legs on the ground, and with both hands stretching for money”.
What is more, it’s pleasant that at the presentation of the first issue of the booklet “Top 20 Ideas of Kyiv Junior Academy of Science of Ukraine participants” prepared by JASU on February 28 this year five projects of students of the Polytechnic Lyceum of NTUU “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” were marked, the development of which was defended by nine patents.
... Today Igor O. Mikul’onok is working at new projects. Therefore, it is hardly doubtful that in some time the second thousand will come after the first one...