The UNMC Intellectual Property Office (IPO) will acknowledge UNMC inventors at this year’s upcoming annual Inventors Recognition Reception. All inventors are invited to attend the reception, which will take place on June 10, 2003, in the University Hospital Private Dining Room. The reception will take place from 4-6 p.m.
UNMC researchers become inventors of patented technology through their work with the Intellectual Property Office. Each year, the Intellectual Property Office receives approximately 30 invention disclosures for evaluation. Roughly one-third are selected for patenting by the IPO and UNMC’s Technology Evaluation and Protection Committee. Once a patent application has been filed, inventor input during the prosecution process is vital in obtaining the best patents possible.
The resulting patents contribute to the assets of the University and are used to attract commercial partners interested in gaining rights to the protected inventions. Additionally, technology licensing and other technology transfer-related activities support the community of Omaha and the state of Nebraska by assisting in the development of start-up companies that are based on UNMC technology. The companies provide jobs for people in the community.
The reception is intended to recognize the substantial efforts of UNMC inventors toward securing rights to intellectual property developed on campus. Commemorative plaques will be awarded to those UNMC inventors in patents which have recently issued. This year’s reception will specifically recognize inventors on six UNMC patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from January 2002 to December 2002.
Inventors receiving plaques will be:
- Thomas Porter and Feng Xie for “Methods for Inducing Atrial and Ventricular Rhythm.”
- Leonid Kirnarsky, Sam Sanderson, Simon Sherman, and Steven Taylor for “High-Affinity Response-Selective C-Terminal Analogs of C5a Anaphylatoxin.”
- Vincent Andaloro, Daniel Monaghan, Thomas Rosenquist, and Preston Gadson for “N-Methyl-D-Aspartate (NMDA) Receptor Blockers for the Prevention of Atherosclerosis.”
- Randy Fox and Robert Leveen for two patents, both titled “Methods for Volumetric Tissue Ablation.”
- Robert S. Lahue, Juan J. Miret, and Richard Pelletier for “Genetic Assays for Trinucleotide Repeat Mutations in Eukaryotic Cells.”