Famous Startup Founders Patent Their Ideas
If you’ve ever wondered if famous startup founders patent their ideas, you’re not alone. The patent system is relatively obscure. This article looks at the patents of Jack Dorsey, Google’s Sergey Brin, and uBiome’s Sam Wen. It will provide a basic understanding of how a patent works.
uBiome’s patent
Despite being liquidated in October, uBiome’s patents were sold for $8 million to a Korean company through auction. This was a good result for uBiome’s creditors. This sale represents a partial recovery of the investment the company made in its IP.
The uBiome patents cover a variety of technologies used to characterize the microbiome. The patents cover methods for sampling, laboratory automation, computational approaches and molecular techniques. The company also holds several other patents on diagnostic and therapeutic targets. Currently, the uBiome database contains over 250,000 samples from people around the world. The company projects that the number of samples will grow to 1 million by the end of this year.
Throughout the sale process, uBiome plans to maintain its Explorer(tm) product. It also plans to continue growing its commercial and academic partnerships. Additionally, it has secured debtor-in-possession financing from Silicon Valley Bank and 8VC. These funds will help uBiome meet its commitments and maximize its chances of successfully selling its assets.
The uBiome patents are the core of a business model that could help consumers make better health decisions. The company had been valued at $600 million at one point. However, its recent collapse has led to the sale of its patents to a DNA testing outfit called Psomagen. Psomagen is a subsidiary of South Korean biotech Macrogen and employs 25 people in Maryland. Psomagen paid $7 million for the intellectual property and patent portfolio of uBiome.
uBiome’s patent technology enables companies to characterize the microbiome and develop a therapeutic model for it. With these data, it is possible to predict the likelihood of occurrence of specific microbiome functional features in a person and to modify their microbiota accordingly with probiotics or prebiotics.
The uBiome SmartGut product uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and sequencing to provide results for patients with gut-related conditions. However, the product is not yet approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. The testing is also not standardized, and differences in sample preparation and data analysis may skew the results.
uBiome’s Sam Wen
Sam Wen is one of the most famous startup founders, and has filed for patents to protect his inventions. This includes pending patent applications and patents that were already granted by the USPTO. Here’s his background. He has an undergraduate degree in electrical and computer engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and is a member of Founder’s 50.
Square’s Jack Dorsey
The company’s founder, Jack Dorsey, is one of the most prominent tech figures, and he has many patents to his name. He’s also an experienced speaker on the latest innovations in fintech. Besides Square, he also founded Block, which revolutionized mobile payments. In addition, he’s also working on hardware wallets for bitcoin and blockchain transactions. The wallets will have fingerprint sensors to secure transactions. They will also feature rechargeable lithium polymer batteries and a USB-C port.
Dorsey has long been a supporter of Bitcoin and believes in Bitcoin as a single currency. Square also integrated Bitcoin in its payment system last year, and Dorsey has disclosed that he spends $10k on Bitcoin every week. In December, Dorsey announced the formation of a new research team called Bluesky, which aims to develop open technical standards for social media platforms.
Square is also accused of patent infringement. The lawsuit was filed by an engineering professor from Washington University, claiming that he invented the Square card reader and corresponding magnetic stripe. The university’s lawsuit claims that Square’s Square app and card reader were based on an invention invented by Professor Morley.
While Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey was once the CEO of Twitter, he now focuses most of his time on Square. After all, the Twitter CEO’s role changed frequently and he doesn’t attend board meetings for Square. The CEO, who has many priorities, is a big proponent of cryptocurrency and has made several investments in the field.
However, Square is determined to fight the lawsuit. The company has been fighting the patent lawsuit for a couple of years. The square patents are assigned to another company, and McKelvey sued Square in 2010 claiming that his name was left off of important patents. The case is currently pending before the Patent and Trademark Office.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Square’s Jack Dorsey said that the company wants to help promote cryptocurrency adoption. “We need to ensure that it’s open to all.” But how will Square do that? The company has just launched a new initiative called the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance. The organization’s goal is to promote free access to blockchain technology in the digital asset industry and fight off patent trolls.
Google’s Sergey Brin
Google’s Sergey Brin is one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs and computer scientists. Along with Larry Page, he co-founded Google. The two men later co-founded Alphabet, the fourth-largest technology company in the world. Alphabet is in the process of restructuring its business to create a diversified portfolio of companies outside of internet services. Brin’s patent portfolio includes 79 different patents in 19 distinct patent families.
During his college years, Sergey Brin studied at the University of Maryland. He studied computer science and mathematics with his father, and graduated in three years with honors. He also studied at Stanford University. His father also taught mathematics at the University of Maryland. In addition, his mother was a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Brin’s mother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in her later years. In honor of her, Sergey Brin and his first wife, Anne, donated $53 million to the cause of Parkinson’s. In 2004, Brin and Larry Page were awarded the Marconi Foundation Prize, which is considered the highest engineering award in the world.
In 2015, Brin and Page reorganized Google’s interests into a holding company, Alphabet Inc. The company grew to employ more than 10,000 people and earn $10 billion a year. Brin and Page both decided to retire at the end of 2018. In the meantime, Sundar Pichai is taking their places as CEO and president.
Although Google’s latest patent relates to aerial vehicles, he has a patent related to a multi-panel display. Another patent pertains to location sharing on a social networking platform. The company is also exploring new products and features based on the technology. The patents also aim to protect Google’s intellectual property.
The company started as a research project at Stanford University, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin were its original founders. They also had an unofficial third founder, Scott Hassan, who wrote much of the Google Search engine’s initial code. However, Hassan quit the project before Google became an official company. He went on to create his own robotics company, Willow Garage, in 2006.
The two founders co-created the PageRank algorithm, which has become the basis of Google’s search engine. Their algorithm determines how important web pages are in terms of search results.