The Licensing Executives Society (LES) Foundation announced the winners of its 2015-2016 International Business Plan Competition, a program co-sponsored by Knobbe Martens that focuses uniquely on the intellectual property (IP) aspects of business strategy.
LES members mentored six finalist teams from Canada, Columbia, the United States, and Uganda, on intellectual property strategy aspects of their plans for more than one month in preparation for this final phase of the Competition, which was hosted at Berkeley Research Group offices in Houston, Texas. The six competitors presented business plans and videos in live virtual Q&A sessions to a panel of 10 on-site and at-large global experts, representing more than 200 collective years of business and IP strategy experience.
WarpSpec Diagnostics was named the Grand Prize Winner and received a prize of $10,000. WarpSpec, which began as a North Carolina State University Jenkins MBA graduate team project with an innovative approach to detecting foodborne pathogens, is developing an inline system that scans meat products for pathogens like Salmonella in real time. The team convincingly argued that its technology could save billions of dollars in lost product shelf life while promoting food safety. The judges cited WarpSpec for an exceptional business plan strongly supported by its IP strategy.
The Foundation’s Global Prize, and $5,000, was awarded to Uganda-based Fruiti-Cycle, a project that began at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Fruiti-Cycle is a biogas powered tri-cycle, with a 300kg carrying capacity refrigerated courier. The project uses environmentally friendly technology to conveniently, economically, and safely transport cooled fresh fruits and vegetable to market for thousands of small farmers.
Essential Biotechnology, LLC, Medical College of Wisconsin Department of Pharmacology, earned both the Best Student Team Prize and the LES Members’ Choice Award, each accompanied by a $1,000 prize. Essential Biotechnology has a new approach to cancer therapy based on the discovery of a molecule that serves as a nexus in regulating tumor cell survival.
The competition, now in its 12th year, is designed to partner professionals with student startup companies that have received less than $200,000 of investment funding with senior leaders in the licensing and IP community as a way to provide mentorship and education about business basics and best practices in IP and licensing transactions. Approved plans submitted to the competition must include a core intellectual property component and strategies describing how the intellectual property will be used to achieve overall business plan objectives. Throughout the competition, participating teams work closely with seasoned professionals to discover concepts that could otherwise take many years of experience to learn.
To learn more about the LES Foundation and the International Business Plan Competition, visit www.lesfoundation.org.
About Licensing Executives Society (U.S.A. and Canada) Inc.
Established in 1965, LES (USA & Canada) is a professional society of nearly 3,000 members engaged in the creation, commercial development, and orderly transfer of intellectual property. LES members include business executives, lawyers, accountants, consultants, and scientists and engineers; and those members represent innovation-oriented enterprises of all sizes, professional services firms, universities, and government labs. LES is a member society of the Licensing Executives Society International, Inc. (LESI), which has more than 10,000 members worldwide among 32 sister societies representing 90 countries. For more information about LES, visit www.lesusacanada.org.
About Knobbe Martens
With over 300 lawyers and scientists nationwide, Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP dedicates its practice to all aspects of intellectual property law including litigation. Consistently ranked among the top intellectual property firms worldwide, Knobbe Martens serves a diverse group of clients from multinational corporations to emerging businesses of all stages. Headquartered in Orange County, California, Knobbe Martens also has offices in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Seattle and Washington, D.C. More information about the firm can be found at www.knobbe.com.