More than 50 individual Utahns and companies were invested with honor of being called a genius at the ninth annual UTAH GENIUS Awards held at the Salt Lake City Sheraton Hotel. Barry Mower, founder of Lifetime Products in Clearfield, was awarded the UTAH GENIUS Lifetime Achievement Award.
The UTAH GENIUS Awards also recognize 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. By some estimates, trademarks contribute more to the economy than do patents. (A full list of the winners in all three categories follows).
Legendary connector Jeff Rust of Corporate Alliance, delivered the keynote address on how to connect in a more human way in our hyper-connected world. In his remarks, Barry Mower talked about the founding of Lifetime Products, addressed the question as to why the company was vertically integrated and emphasized the need for innovation not only in design, but in manufacturing as well.
Using data from the US Patent and Trademark Office, the UTAH GENIUS Awards staff tracks the number of inventors and companies who list a Utah address on patents issued during each calendar year. When the year comes to an end, the 20 inventors and 20 companies with the most patents issued in the year prior receive UTAH GENIUS Awards at a luncheon held in late spring. In Utah it’s not uncommon for the top individual inventors to be issued 20 patents in a year, or for the Geniuses to win awards several years in row.
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 UTAH GENIUS Awards are granted entirely on merit. There are no nominations or voting and, thanks to our sponsors, no cost for the winners to attend.
“The idea behind the GENIUS AWARDS,” says CEO Nelly Lycurgue, “is that when creative people are recognized for their contributions to our society and economy we tend to get more innovation. And the world is always in need of more geniuses!”
Using recognition and competition to encourage innovation is an age-old idea. For instance, when Charles Lindbergh made the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic from New York to Paris in 1927, he claimed the Ortieg Prize and $25,000. The challenge of determining longitude at sea was solved in 1714 by the self-taught clockmaker John Harrison after the British Parliament offered a substantial prize to all-comers. Sir Isaac Newton was among the other entrants for the Longitude Prize.
More recently, the Ansari XPrize for Suborbital Spaceflight challenged private companies to build and fly a spaceship capable of carrying three people 100 kilometers into space and successfully fly two times within two weeks. The Ansari XPrize was claimed in 2004 by the company Scaled Composites and is widely credited with launching the current private company space race.
Arthur Conan Doyle said, “mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.” Accordingly, the US GENIUS Awards, the parent company of the UTAH GENIUS Awards, is launching the awards in other states. Besides Utah, there are now GENIUS Awards in Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming. Over the next five years, the US GENIUS will roll out GENIUS Awards in the remaining 44 states. Ultimately, the Genius awards will culminate in a national US GENIUS Awards.
UTAH GENIUS Award individual Patentee winners for 2017 were:
16th Place with 9 Patents
o David Brian Jackson
o Henry J. Howell
o David O. Meyers
o Rezi Jalili
o William Dalebout
o Nachiappan Chidambaram
o Jason Allen Sabin
15th Place with 10 Patents
o John Strasser
9th Place with 11 Patents
o Barrett Peterson
o Peter M. Kelly
o T. Wade Fallin
o Nathan S. Bushman
o Michael A. Vail
o Debkumar Mukhopadhyay
5th Place with 12 Patents
o Jeremy B. Warren
o Norman L. Krantz
o Jair J. Gonzalez
o Kenneth E. Bertagnolli
4th Place with 13 Patents
o David R. Hall
2nd Place with 15 Patents
o David Flynn
o John Ryan Calwell
1st Place with 16 Patents
o Lloyd Burch
UTAH GENIUS Award corporate Patentee winners for 2017 were:
18th Place with 13 Patents
o Orbital ATK
o The Code Corporation
o Lifetime Products
16th Place with 14 Patents
o Sorenson Communications
o L-3 Communications
15th Place with 15 Patents
o Utah State University
13th Place with 16 Patents
o MX Technologies
o Skullcandy
12th Place with 17 Patents
o Autoliv ASP
11th Place with 22 Patents
o Sandisk Technologies
10th Place with 23 Patents
o Adobe Systems
9th Place with 25 Patents
o Vivint
8th Place with 26 Patents
o C. R. Bard
7th Place with 28 Patents
o Icon Health & Fitness
5th Place with 30 Patents
o IBM Corporation
o Brigham Young University
4th Place with 31 Patents
o BD Medical
3rd Place with 35 Patents
o Micro Focus
2nd Place with 52 Patents
o US Synthetic
1st Place with 70 Patents
o University of Utah
UTAH GENIUS Award top trademark companies for 2016 were:
10th Place with 12 Trademarks
o IHC Health Services
6th Place with 14 Trademarks
o Sportsmen Warehouse
o Nutraceutical
o BGZ Brands
o Eldorado Stone Operations
5th Place with 15 Trademarks
o Zija International
4th Place with 17 Trademarks
o Veridicus Holdings
3rd Place with 18 Trademarks
o AdvancedMD
2nd Place with 19 Trademarks
o AbundanceTechnologies
1st Place with 20 Trademarks
o doTERRA International
The UTAH GENIUS Awards are presented by the law firm of Durham Jones & Pinegar. Sponsors include: FluentWorlds, SnappConnor PR, Corporate Alliance, Webb Audio Visual, BioUtah, GoEngineer, Salt Lake Chamber, and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.
About UTAH GENIUS: UTAH GENIUS was founded in 2009 by Rand Bateman, a successful Utah patent attorney. Appreciating that much of Utah’s vibrant economy has to do with the innovative nature of Utah companies, Rand decided that he could give back to the community by honoring those who were driving Utah’s creative economy. Rather than focusing only on the companies, however, he decided to also honor the people behind the innovations – e.g. Utah’s Geniuses. The UTAH GENIUS Awards are the only effort in Utah associated with the World Intellectual Property Day, which takes place each April 26, and is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, an agency of the United Nations.
About UTAH GENIUS
UTAH GENIUS Awards go annually to the most inventive and innovative Utahns in three categories, based on objective data direct from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
•Top 20 inventors, by patents issued in the prior calendar year
•Top 20 most inventive companies, by patents issued in the prior calendar year
•Top 10 trademark registrants, by trademarks issued in the prior calendar year
The Genius Awards also give a Lifetime Achievement Award to someone whose career has been marked by invention, innovation, and creativity. In 2016 the Lifetime Achievement Award will go to New York Times Best-Selling Author Richard Paul Evans who, naturally, holds a number of copyrights.
