Utah Genius Awards Recognize Top Innovators

Appreciating and showcasing the “wonderful spirit of innovation coming out of Utah” is the main goal of the Utah Genius Awards, said Lt. Gov. Greg Bell, at the awards Wednesday afternoon.

There is an idea that the economy of the future will be based on who can attract the best minds, said Randall Bateman, president of Bateman IP, which founded the awards. While Utah is doing its fair share of attracting great minds, he said they “started this to let the best minds we have here know that we appreciate you.”

The Utah Genius Awards are mostly objectively based on information from the patent office, but the People’s Choice and Lifetime Achievement awards are more subjective.

Taking home the top prize this year was Stephen C. Jacobsen for Lifetime Achievement. Jacobsen is a professor in the University of Utah’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Jacobsen said, “The real joy of it (his work) was working together with people to solve problems and create solutions that worked.”

Also winning were David R. Hall, in the Top Patentees category with 62 patents; University of Utah, in Top Patent Company category with 49 patents; and Shipley Associates and MonaVie, who tied in Top Trademark Registrants with 20 each.

Brian Ritchie, director of the U’s Technology Commercialization Office, said working on new ideas at the University of Utah has a feeling of building momentum that was missing in previous places he’d worked.

He hopes people understand that the university is not just trying to license or commercialize ideas, but really trying to partner with the community. It’s not just professors who can take advantage of these ideas, but investors and entrepreneurs from throughout the community.

Full List of Honorees:

Lifetime Achievement

Stephen C. Jacobsen

Top Patent Companies

3form
Adaptive Computing
Enterprises, Inc
Ancestry.com
Autoliv ASP
Boart Longyear
BYU
Ceramatec, Inc.
CLEARONE
Control4 Corporation
FUSION-IO
HandStands
HyClone Laboratories
Icon IP
Lifetime Products
Merit Medical Systems
Miche Bag, LLC
Mity-Lite, Inc.
Novell
Provo Craft and Novelty
Red Leaf Resources, Inc.
Ultradent Products, Inc.
University of Utah
US Synthetic Corp.
Utah State University Commercialization & Regional Development
Won-Door Corporation
Zevex, Inc.

Top Patentees

Ashok V. Joshi
Austin McKinnon
Christopher L. Drenth
Craig Cooley
Daniel J. Triplett
David R. Hall
E. Marlowe Goble
Gregory Jensen Boss
Jeff Jepson
Michael A. Vail
Michael D. Rupp
Paula Turner Durrand
Peter Saunders
Robert L. Angell
Ronald Crockett
Scott Dahlgren
Stephen C. Jacobsen
Stephen R. Carter
T. Wade Fallin
Thomas R. Giallorenzi
Tyson J. Wilde
Weston F. Harding
William T. Dalebout

Top Trademark Registrants

Allegiance Software, Inc.
American Pension Services, Inc.
Bill Good Marketing
Busy Life, LLC
C.R. England, Inc.
Called to Surf, LLC
CAO Group
CFOwise
Covey/Link, LLC
Crexendo Business Solutions
E Nutrition Research, LLC dba Oxytokin
Handi Quilter, Inc.
Hugger-Mugger Yoga Products, LLC
Imagine Health, Inc.
Ludaxx, LLC
Max International, LLC
MonaVie LLC
National Energy Foundation
NLU Products dba Body Guardz
Orbit Irrigation Products, Inc.
Orca MD LLC
Overstock.com, Inc.
Priority Dispatch Corp.
RAMP
Shipley Associates
SocialNexus, Inc.
Wing Enterprises, Inc.
Zions Bancorporation

People’s Choice Award

The University of Utah

(4.26.12)