Nobel pseudo-prizes

In 1995, European Union officials made the mistake of deeming the new European ICT Prize the "Nobel Prize" for innovation in information and communication technologies. Soon after, they received a friendly note from the Nobel Foundation saying they had infringed upon a trademark license, and could face legal action. EU officials promised to cease and desist from such comparisons, and everything resolved amicably. As harmless as it may seem to invoke the name of Nobel to fashion prestige, the Nobel Prize has been under trademark license for more than 20 years, and Nobel Foundation employees keep a steady eye on news releases and current events, watching for the misuse of the name. Over the past few years, Foundation employees have seen an increase in the number of illegal uses of the Nobel's good name. "We are currently sending approximately two to three letters of warning per month," says Jonna Petterson, public relations manager for the Nobel Foundation, in an e-mail. It's not surprising that Nobel staff see more misuses of the Nobel name, as the number of prize-awarding programs increases about 10%-15% each year, and has at least doubled since 1990, according to Larry Tise, professor of history at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. A recent press release from Prix Galien called an award "the 'Nobel Prize' for applied medical research and development." The media has dubbed the Association for Computing Machinery's A.M. Turing Award "the Nobel of computer science." And even the Blue Planet Prize, awarded by the Asahi Glass Foundation, has been called "the Nobel of environmental science." Not everything resolves as amicably as it did with the EU. "Usually the recipients of these letters are willing to cease from using the trademark; however, in a couple of cases, we have been forced to take legal action," Petterson says. "It seems that many new prizes or other people try to benefit from the prestige which the Nobel awarding institution has built over the last century," says Michael Sohlman, executive director of the Nobel Foundation, declining to provide specifics about the Foundation's involvement in legal cases. "But it's not our prestige, it's the prestige of the Nobel laureates that is abused if [the name is] used in an inappropriate way." Sometimes the comparison is merited, Sohlman notes, such as with the Lasker Award or Gairdner Award. Of the more than 300 Lasker Award winners, 71 have gone on to win the Nobel Prize; 65 of the 290 Gairdner Award winners have also received Nobels. Nobel Foundation staff can place a friendly phone call to organizations that infringe upon the Nobel trademark in press releases, but they have little control over the media's proclivity towards embellishment. They've read articles dubbing the National Academy of Engineering's Russ Prize as the Nobel of bioengineering. Some examples are particularly egregious: Jefferson Award: Nobel of public service? The Templeton Prize: Nobel of research and discoveries about spiritual realities? Moreover, EU media continue to refer to the ICT prize as the "Nobel" of its field. It's an understandable temptation when trying to fashion interest in a scientific award, given that the Nobel is one of the few awards known to both scientists and nonscientists. This raises the question: What makes a prize prestigious? A 1983 essay by Eugene Garfield (founder of The Scientist) notes that factors that affect how the public perceives a prize include the prize award amount (the higher the better), how often it is awarded (often enough to not be forgotten, but rarely enough to remain important), and how many recipients there are (not everyone in the field should get one). But it's not a magic formula: The American Chemical Society's highest honor, the Priestly Medal, is often termed the Nobel Prize of chemistry, but it carries no cash prize. The Fields Medal, awarded by the International Mathematical Union, is considered "the Nobel of math" and yet is awarded only once every four years. While some uses of the Nobel name are easily forgiven, the worst cases involve companies that use the word Nobel to make a buck, Sohlman notes. The Foundation has confronted an automotive company trying to name a new car "the Nobel." It has had to correct schools or educational services that say attendance guarantees students a Nobel Prize. Even a liposuction clinic was called the "Nobel Clinic," at least for a while.

Nobel pseudo-prizes

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