STAR AND PROLIFIC INVENTORS: EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PATENTS Starting from the basic topics of invention, innovation and inventors, the last group will be further analyzed by introducing two categories: “Star Inventors” and “Prolific Inventors” depending on the participation as a finalist or winner at the EPO Award competition. Chapter 2 of the thesis summarizes a description of the current literature regarding these two categories of inventors and the main literary achievements. As the final aim of the work is understanding the differences between these two groups of inventors by comparing the features of the patents filed by each of them, an overview of the main social prizes is presented with particular interest to the EPO Patent Award.