Middle Tennessee
Fleetguard Inc. of Nashville received U.S. Patent No. 7,674,425, entitled “Variable coalescer” invented by William C. Haberkamp of Cookeville along with Wisconsonians Brian W. Schwandt, Christopher E. Holm, Tadeusz Jaroszczyk, Eric A. Janikowski, Kwok-Lam Ng, Barry M. Verdegan and Roger L. Zoch and Poland’s Leon Grado, Jacek Bodasiski and Witalis Rumiskiand.
Also issued to Middle Tennessee inventors:
• U.S. Patent No. D611,655, entitled “Razor Grip Extender” invented by Lisa Reshena of Erin.
• U.S. Patent No. 7,675,960, entitled “Method for generating communication signal sequences having desirable correlation properties and system for using same” invented by James L. Richards of Fayetteville and Vernon R. Brethour, Larry W. Fullerton and Marcus H. Pendergrass, all of Alabama, and assigned to Alereon Inc. of Austin.
• U.S. Patent No. 7,674,589, entitled “Methods for tissue analysis” invented by Mary Beth Gardiner of Nashville and Gregory T. Stelzer of Brentwood, along with Robert L. Cohen and Mark X. Sliwkowski, both of California, and assigned to Genentech Inc. of South San Francisco.
• U.S. Patent No. 7,674,376, entitled “Centrifuge with integral depth filter” invented by Peter K. Herman, Hendrik N. Amirkhanian and Lee Currier, all of Cookeville, and assigned to Cummins Filtration IP Inc. of Minneapolis.
• U.S. Patent No. 7,673,661, entitled “Sensor system for a refrigerator dispenser” invented by Vashishtha Kadchhud of Nashville and Rahul Mehta of Antioch, Greg Hatch of Roselle, Ill., and Michiganders Kevin M. Chase, Randell L. Jeffery, Matthew J. Nibbelink, Brian Wendling and Morounkeji Fatunde, and assigned to Whirlpool Corp. of Benton Harbor, Mich.
East Tennessee
Kingsport’s Eastman Chemical Co. received three patents:
• U.S. Patent No. 7,674,931, entitled “Method for producing 2,2,4-trimethyl-1,3-pentanediol di-2-ethylhexanoate” invented by Ruairi Seosamh O’Meadhra and Steven Leroy Cook of Kingsport and Elden Mills Bailey and Phillip Wayne Turner of Blountville.
• U.S. Patent No. 7,674,877, entitled “Thermal crystallization of polyester pellets in liquid” invented by Gray’s Cory Lee Wells and Kingsport’s Mary Therese Jernigan, Michael Paul Ekart, Luciano Dalmacio Samitier and Larry Cates Windes.
• U.S. Patent No. 7,674,937, entitled “Hydroformylation catalysts” invented by Ginette Struck Tolleson and Thomas Allen Puckette of Longview, Texas.
Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Y-12 LLC of Oak Ridge was awarded U.S. Patent No. 7,673,392, entitled “Powered protrusion cutter” invented by Fariborz M. Bzorgi of Knoxville.
Procon Inc. of Knoxville received U.S. Patent No. 7,675,423, entitled “Mass occupant emergency notification system using satellite radio downlink” invented by Brian M. Boling of Knoxville, Ronald D. Bishop of Trabucco Canyon, Cal., Darryl T. Brown of Lenoir City, and Scott P. Morgan of Northfield, Vt.
Shofner Engineering Associates Inc. of Knoxville received U.S. Patent No. 7,675,615, entitled “Image-based fiber length measurements from tapered beards” invented by Frederick M. Shofner of Knoxville, Christopher K. Shofner of Tullahoma and Yupeng Zhang of Danbury, Conn.
The University of Tennessee Research Foundation received U.S. Patent No. 7,674,464, entitled “Intracellular interleukin-1 receptor antagonists” invented by Karen A. Hasty of Memphis, Sivadasan Kanangat of Cordova, and Arnold Postlethwait of Eads.
Knoxville’s Derrick L. Baird and John C. McCracken received U.S. Patent No. 7,674,991, entitled “Pedal assemblies and methods for signal control.”
East Tennesseans are among the named inventors on three patents issued to Siemens Medical Solutions USA Inc. of Malvern, Pa.
• U.S. Patent No. 7,676,073, entitled “System and method for reducing circular artifacts in tomographic imaging” invented by James J. Hamill and David D. Faul of Knoxville.
• U.S. Patent No. 7,676,070, entitled “Device for on-line data acquisition in three-dimensional positron emission tomography” invented by William F. Jones of Knoxville and Johnny Reed of Clinton.
• U.S. Patent No. 7,675,028, entitled “Low-scattering foam phantom for molecular imaging” invented by Johannes Breuer of Dortmund, Del., Rainer Paul of Kapsweyer, Del., Volker Matschl of Knoxville, and A. Andrew Carey of Rockford.
West Tennessee
Warsaw Orthopedic Inc., a subsidiary of Medtronic Inc. of Memphis, received two patents:
• U.S. Patent No. 7,674,277, entitled “Side-loading bone anchor” invented by Brian A. Burd of Memphis and Matthew M. Morrison of Cordova.
• U.S. Patent No. 7,674,265, entitled “Minimally invasive instruments and methods for preparing vertebral endplates” invented by Maurice M. Smith of Cordova, Roy Lim of Memphis and Thomas E. Roehm III of Braden.
• U.S. Patent No. 7,674,294, entitled “End device for a vertebral implant” invented by Dean G. Karahalios of Lake Forest, Ill., Danny Horton Braddock Jr., of Germantown, and Andrew McCormick Dickson of Memphis.
Thomas & Betts International Inc. received U.S. Patent No. 7,674,990, entitled “Intumescent cover for a poke-through assembly” invented by Mark R. Drane of Germantown and Robert K. Jolly of Cordova.
Plexus Biomedical Inc. of Memphis received U.S. Patent No. 7,673,633, entitled “Apparatus and method of inhibiting perianal tissue damage” invented by David D. Blurton of Whiteville and Hai Trieu of Cordova.
Kilgore Flares Co. LLC of Toone was awarded U.S. Patent No. 7,673,552, entitled “Countermeasure system and method of using the same” invented by David W. Herbage of Jackson.
Gyrus ENT LLC of Bartlett received U.S. Patent No. 7,674,263, entitled “Surgical instrument and method” invented by Phillip A. Ryan of Memphis.
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha of Nagoya, Japan, received U.S. Patent No. 7,675,511, entitled “Electronic notebook” invented by Yasuhiro Hattori of Cordova.
Spine Wave Inc. of Shelton, Conn. received U.S. Patent No. 7,674,278, entitled “Tissue distraction device” invented by Frank S. Bono of Collierville, Richard J. Manzi of Yorktown Heights, N.Y., Joseph N. Logan of Trumbull, Conn., Steven J. Wysocki of Stratford, Conn., and Spanky A. Raymond of Uniontown, Ohio.
— Compiled by R. Parrish Freeman Jr. of intellectual property law firm Waddey & Patterson P.C [2].