Masimo Founder and CEO Joe Kiani was honored last night at the 2018 IPO Education Foundation Awards Dinner with the first ever IP Champion Award. The Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to educating the public on the importance of IP to society, has been awarding an Inventor of the Year for 45 years and Distinguished IP Professional for 10 years. 2018 marks the creation of a new award, IP Champion, bestowed upon Mr. Kiani for showing “extraordinary leadership in advocating for the value of intellectual property to the progress of innovation.”Retired Chief Judge Paul Michel, formerly U.S. Circuit Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and Chief Judge of that court, commented, “Serial inventor Joe Kiani built a major patient health improving company, starting from scratch at age 23, obtaining VC funding based on his patent applications when patents were strong. Later Congressional and Supreme Court interventions so sapped patent strength that he could not repeat his feat today. Reviving patents is essential to America's future since most major inventions, new jobs, and personal welfare gains and economic growth result from start-ups and small and mid-sized technology companies like Masimo. It actually saves many lives each day with its patient monitoring devices. Isn't that what we need as much today as before?”
