Patent filings result in companies, individuals being named 'Utah Geniuses'

Barry Mower

More than 50 Utah companies and individuals were honored recently with Utah Genius Awards.

The ninth annual program featured Barry Mower, founder of Lifetime Products in Clearfield, receiving the Utah Genius Lifetime Achievement Award.

The awards staff uses data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to track the number of inventors and companies who list a Utah address on patents issued during each calendar year. The 20 inventors and 20 companies with the most patents issued during the year receive Utah Genius honors.

Lloyd Bruch

Lloyd Burch, an inventor who works at Micro Focus (formerly Novell) in Provo won the Utah Genius Award for the individual with the most patents in 2016, with 16.

In the corporate category, the University of Utah won the first prize after securing 70 patents in 2016. The UofU has won in the corporate category every year of the Utah program.

The awards program also recognizes the companies in the state that have the most issued trademarks in the year prior. In 2017, first place went to DoTerra International in Pleasant Grove.

The Utah Genius Awards are the only Utah innovation awards associated with World Intellectual Property Day sponsored by the World Intellectual Property Organization, an agency of the United Nations.

“The idea behind the Genius Awards is that when creative people are recognized for their contributions to our society and economy, we tend to get more innovation,” said Nelly Lycurgue, chief executive officer. “And the world is always in need of more geniuses!”

Individual patentee award winners are:

• First place: Lloyd Burch, 16 patents.

• Second place: David Flynn and John Ryan Calwell, 15.

• Fourth place: David R. Hall, 13.

• Fifth place: Jeremy B. Warren, Norman L. Krantz, Jair J. Gonzalez and Kenneth E. Bertagnolli, 12.

• Ninth place: S. Barrett Peterson, Peter M. Kelly, T. Wade Fallin, Nathan S. Bushman, Michael A. Vail and Debkumar Mukhopadhyay, 11.

• 15th place: John Strasser, 10.

• 16th place: David Brian Jackson, Henry J. Howell, David O. Meyers, Rezi Jalili, William Dalebout, Nachiappan Chidambaram and Jason Allen Sabin, nine.

Corporate patentee winners are:

• First place: University of Utah, 70 patents.

• Second place: US Synthetic Corp., 52.

• Third place: Micro Focus, 35.

• Fourth place: Beckton, Dickinson and Co., 31.

• Fifth place: IBM Corp. and Brigham Young University, 30.

• Seventh place: Icon Health & Fitness, 28.

• Eighth place: C.R. Bard Inc., 26.

• Ninth place, Vivint Inc., 25.

• 10th place: Adobe Systems Inc., 23.

• 11th place: Sandisk Technologies LLC, 22.

• 12th place: Autoliv ASP Inc., 17.

• 13th place: MX Technologies Inc. and Skullcandy Inc., 16.

• 15th place: Utah State University, 15.

• 16th place: Sorenson Communications Inc. and L-3 Communications Corp., 14.

• 18th place: Orbital ATK Inc., The Code Corp. and Lifetime Products Inc., 13.

Top trademark companies are:

• First place: DoTerra International, 20 trademarks.

• Second place: Abundance Technologies LLC, 19.

• Third place: AdvancedMD Inc., 18.

• Fourth place: Veridicus Holdings LLC, 17.

• Fifth place: Zija International Inc., 15.

• Sixth place: Sportsman’s Warehouse Inc., NutraMarks Inc., BGZ Brands and Eldorado Stone Operations, 14.

• 10th place: IHC Health Services Inc., 12.