Middle Tennessee

Nissan North America, Inc., of Franklin had two patents issued:

1. U.S. Patent No. 8,231,163, entitled “Tool mounting assembly for motor vehicles” invented by Brandon Dawe of Livonia, Mich., and Ryan Corby of Grass Lake, Mich.

2. U.S. Patent No. 8,231,154, entitled “Cancel lever for clam shell vehicle doors” invented by David Kovie of Farmington Hills, Mich.

Other patents issued from Middle Tennessee:

* U.S. Patent No. D664,638, entitled “Fireplace assembly” invented by Joseph A. Beneditti of Nashville and Amy Grella of Nashville, and assigned to Lennox Hearth Products, LLC, of Nashville.

* U.S. Patent No. D664,487, entitled “Rotor” invented by Charles Hampton Perry of Murfreesboro and Paul Walter Martin, III, of Murfreesboro.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,233,102, entitled “Apparatus and method for adjustable variable transmissivity polarized eyeglasses” invented by Robin Hines of Tullahoma, Robert G. Burlingame of Sherman, Texas, Ernest G. Bylander of Sherman, Texas and Walter Wen of Garland, Texas and assigned to RGB Optics, LLC, of Sherman, Texas.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,231,752, entitled “Method and apparatus for making filter element, including multi-characteristic filter element” invented by Robert E. Muse of Cookeville, Melvin Rice of Brentwood, Eric A. Janikowski of Jefferson, Wis., Barry M. Verdegan of Stoughton, Wis., Jerald J. Moy of Oregon, Wis., Jacek Bodasi ski of Warsaw, Pol., Witalis Rumi ski of Warsaw, Pol., Leon Grado of Warsaw, Pol., and Tadeusz Jaroszczyk of Stoughton, Wis., and assigned to Cummins Filtration IP Inc., of Minneapolis, Minn., and Microspun Products Ltd. of Warszawa, Pol.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,231,636, entitled “Anchor driver with assured seating” invented by J. Michael Fitzpatrick of Nashville, Robert F. Labadie of Nashville and Jason E. Mitchell of Greenbrier, and assigned to Vanderbilt University of Nashville.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,231,530, entitled “Methods and systems for assessing gastric emptying” invented by Kerry C. Bush of Brentwood, and Robert F. Martin of Missouri City, Texas, and assigned to Advanced Breath Diagnostics, LLC, of Brentwood.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,231,065, entitled “Floating restriction for a refrigerant line” invented by Roger J. Voorhis of Clarksville, and assigned to Trane International Inc. of Piscataway, N.J.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,230,864, entitled “Arm stabilizer for elbow surgical procedure” invented by Alton Lee Hunter, Jr. of Columbia.

East Tennessee

Power Systems, Inc., of Knoxville had two patents issued:

1. U.S. Patent No. D664,624, entitled “Exercise apparatus” invented by James Michael Orsulak of Knoxville, Montgomery Scott Kilburn of Knoxville, Bobby Daryl Shute of Knoxville and Daniel L. Webb of Newburgh, Ind.

2. U.S. Patent No. D664,622, entitled “Exercise apparatus” invented by James Michael Orsulak of Knoxville, Montgomery Scott Kilburn of Knoxville, Bobby Daryl Shute of Knoxville and Daniel L. Webb of Newburgh, Ind.

Other patents naming inventors from East Tennessee:

* U.S. Patent No. 8,232,664, entitled “Vertical axis wind turbine” invented by Luis Piloto of Johnson City, and Mark R. Stroup of Longwood, Fla., and assigned to Luis Piloto of Johnson City, N.J., and Mark R. Stroup of Longwood, Fla.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,232,077, entitled “Oocytes derived from ovarian culture initially containing no oocytes” invented by Antonin Bukovsky of Knoxville and Michael R. Caudle of Maryville and assigned to Ovacyte LLC of Gladwyne, Pa.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,231,703, entitled “Nanostructured composite reinforced material” invented by Roland D. Seals of Oak Ridge, Edward B. Ripley of Knoxville and Gerard M. Ludtka of Oak Ridge and assigned to Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Y-12, LLC, of Oak Ridge.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,231,634, entitled “Methods of predetermining the contour of a resected bone surface and assessing the fit of a prosthesis on the bone” invented by Mohamed Mahfouz of Knoxville and Brian D. Earl of South Bend, Ind., and assigned to Zimmer, Inc., of Warsaw, Ind.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,230,822, entitled “Pet collar having retractable leash” invented by Sandra W. Smith of Knoxville.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,230,789, entitled “Method and apparatus for a projectile incorporating a metastable interstitial composite material” invented by Michael Joseph Maston of Oak Ridge, and Keith Williams of Edgefield, S.C., and assigned to Nowtec Services Group, Inc., of Edgefield, S.C.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,230,748, entitled “Apparatus for pre-stress-straining rod-type specimens in tension for in-situ passive fracture testing” invented by John Jy-an Wang of Oak Ridge, Ken C. Liu of Oak Ridge and Zhili Feng of Knoxville and assigned to UT-Battelle, LLC, of Oak Ridge.

West Tennessee

* U.S. Patent No. 8,232,230, entitled “Manufacture and use of a herbicide formulation” invented by Greg Volgas of Bartlett, Johnnie R. Roberts of Memphis and Flavious Johnson of Memphis and assigned to Helena Holding Company of Wilmington, Del.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,231,954, entitled “Thermoformed articles made from reactive extrusion products of biobased materials” invented by Wei Li of Mason, Ohio, Richard A. Tedford of Loveland, Ohio, and Bruce J. Thoman of Lebanon, Ohio, and assigned to International Paper Co. of Memphis.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,231,891, entitled “Implantable drug depot for weight control” invented by Vanja Margareta King of Memphis and assigned to Warsaw Orthopedic, Inc., of Warsaw, Ind.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,231,681, entitled “Self-contained expandable implant and method” invented by David W. Castleman of Germantown and Eric S. Heinz of Memphis and assigned to Warsaw Orthopedic, Inc., of Warsaw, Ind.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,231,679, entitled “Prosthesis connection mechanism” invented by Jason John Eckhardt of Memphis, Vincent C. Traynelis of Chicago, Ill., J. Kenneth Burkus of Columbus, Ga., and Regis W. Haid, Jr., of Atlanta, Ga., and assigned to Warsaw Orthopedic, Inc., of Warsaw, Ind.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,231,661, entitled “Systems and methods for minimally invasive facet fusion” invented by Thomas A. Carls of Memphis and Newton H. Metcalf, Jr. of Memphis and assigned to Warsaw Orthopedic, Inc., of Warsaw, Ind.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,231,659, entitled “Anchoring mechanism” invented by Aleksandr G. Zolotov of Collierville and assigned to Warsaw Orthopedic, Inc., of Warsaw, Ind.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,231,657, entitled “Load bearing flexible spinal connecting element” invented by Jason John Eckhardt of Memphis, Tom J. Francis of Cordova, and Hai H. Trieu of Cordova, and assigned to Warsaw Orthopedic, Inc., of Warsaw, Ind.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,231,633, entitled “Instruments, implants and methods for positioning implants into a spinal disc space” invented by Roy Lim of Memphis and Steven D. DeRiddar of Bartlett and assigned to Warsaw Orthopedic, Inc., of Warsaw, Ind.

* U.S. Patent No. 8,231,508, entitled “Bi-directional exercise device for wrists and forearms” invented by Roger Rousseau of Germantown.

Compiled by Matthew C. Cox of intellectual property law firm Waddey & Patterson P.C.