Each year, the Boston Patent Law Association (BPLA) Invented Here! award celebrates local and regional New England innovation communities by honoring select innovators, their inventions, and the stories behind them. Greenberg Traurig’s Boston Intellectual Property (IP) Group is proud to have four of its clients – GRIT, LuxCath LLC, The George Washington University, and IlluminOss Medical, Inc. – recognized in 2017 for their patented innovations. These clients were honored for three patents prepared and prosecuted by Greenberg Traurig. They are among only 12 patents honored that were selected from over 50 nominations.

The Greenberg Traurig clients were selected for the following patents:

• “Wheelchair with Lever Drivetrain” (US Patent No. 8,844,959), assigned to Global Research Innovation and Technology (GRIT); represented by Chinh H. Pham. GRIT’s Freedom Chair is an all-terrain wheelchair designed by a world-class team of MIT engineers. Part mountain bike, part wheelchair, the Freedom Chair opens up a new world of exploration for those with disabilities. The Freedom Chair maintains the primary design, converting arm power into motion by a simple lever-based, geared drivetrain. As on a bicycle, the gearing eases the strain on the muscles, allowing the rider to power through rougher terrain and up steeper hills.
• “Systems and Methods for Visualizing Ablated Tissue” (US Patent No. 9,084,611), assigned to LuxCath LLC and The George Washington University; represented by David J. Dykeman and Roman Fayerberg. LuxCath is a medical device company that is developing catheter-based real-time tissue contact assessment, lesion visualization, and lesion gap detection technology that has many uses including oncology. This medical innovation is based on collaborative research and development with researchers and faculty at the George Washington University.       LuxCath has an exclusive license from George Washington University.

• “Apparatus for Delivery of Reinforcing Materials to Bone” (US Patent No. 9,265,549), assigned to IlluminOss Medical, Inc.; represented by Dykeman and Fayerberg. IlluminOss Medical has developed a platform, disruptive technology for the orthopedic trauma market. The technology centers around image guided, minimally invasive conforming orthopedic implants that leverage its proprietary bone stabilization technology, the “IlluminOss System”. Through the unique and proprietary combination of balloons, light activated monomers and flexible catheters, IlluminOss has created the world’s first patient conforming intramedullary implant.

Honorees were recognized as representatives of the innovation community at an awards reception, Monday, Oct. 23, 2017, at The Exchange Conference Center in the Seaport (Innovation) District. In addition, IlluminOss Medical and LuxCath were named two of the three Invented Here! 2017 Top Honorees. Both IlluminOss founder Robert Rabiner and LuxCath founder Omar Amirana, MD, were interviewed during the reception.

Congrats to all!