LuminAID Receives Wide-Ranging Patent for Solar Light Technology
Chicago, IL (PRWEB) June 08, 2016 -- The United States Patent Office has granted solar lighting company LuminAID a patent for inflatable solar-powered lights, awarding comprehensive patent protection in the United States - U.S. Patent No. 9,347,629. In the midst of rapid growth in the diverse sustainable technology sector, LuminAID has developed an innovative and life-saving lighting technology for disaster relief, humanitarian aid and outdoor recreation. The awarded patent application, which was filed in 2012, covers a wide range of shapes and sizes of solar inflatable lanterns, including several different iterations already commercially available as part of the LuminAID solar product line.
LuminAID lights are used by humanitarian aid organizations ShelterBox, Médecins Sans Frontiers and the United Nations Population Fund as well as major companies such as Toyota, Exelon, Commonwealth Edison and Lenovo. The solar lights have been distributed to more than 70 countries.
LuminAID founders and inventors Anna Stork and Andrea Sreshta developed the LuminAID technology while still in graduate school and have since helped thousands of victims of disasters and poverty, including individuals in Haiti and Nepal. The two female entrepreneurs were featured on ABC’s Shark Tank in 2015. As a result of the Shark Tank presentation, Mark Cuban invested in the company. According to Cuban, “Investing in companies like LuminAID that also help people allows me to focus on not only how we can make money but also how we can make an impact.”
LuminAID was represented by John Dragseth and Jennifer Huang at the intellectual property law firm Fish & Richardson in the patent application process. Cuban has also been represented by Fish in various matters.
“Being granted the patent is a tremendous milestone for LuminAID as it provides a solid foundation for future innovation,” states Kathi Vidal, a Principal with Fish. Natalie Arbaugh, a Principal who heads Fish’s Women’s Initiative adds, “We are delighted to work with women inventors like Anna and Andrea as it underscores our firm’s commitment to expanding the role of women in technology, business and the law.”
LuminAID light technology integrates a solar-rechargeable LED circuit in an expandable and collapsible core. The solar lanterns are the first of their kind to be designed with an inflatable transparent bladder which diffuses the solar-charged LED light and collapses to be easily portable. The LuminAID lanterns are entirely waterproof and dustproof and collapse into a compact shape.
Inventors Stork and Sreshta represent a rarity in U.S. Patent holders: only 15 percent of all issued patents are granted to women. While they have been growing their business and continuing to invent new solar products, Stork and Sreshta have worked to empower the next generation of women engineers and entrepreneurs. Representing LuminAID, Stork spoke at the United Nation for Women’s Entrepreneurship Day and is featured in a children’s book about women engineers.
More than just a solar start-up, the women at LuminAID have incorporated social responsibility through their Give Light Get Light program. This program helps customers sponsor lights for families in need around the world. The LuminAID business model continues to shine within a group of successful start-ups centered around social entrepreneurship. Having created one of the most successful of these social responsibility brands, TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie recognized a shared social mission and offered to invest in LuminAID last month.
About LuminAID
LuminAID develops innovative, solar-powered products for humanitarian relief aid and outdoor recreation. The company’s first product, the LuminAID light, is a solar-powered, inflatable lamp that packs flat and inflates to create a lightweight, waterproof lantern suitable for outdoor recreation and emergency situations. Anna Stork and Andrea Sreshta, co-founders of the company, invented the inflatable solar lights in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti while they were graduate students at Columbia University. LuminAID lights have been sold to individuals in more than 70 different countries, and charitable projects with NGO partners have put more than 25,000 donated lights on the ground in more than 50 countries including Haiti, Nepal and the Philippines. LuminAID was featured on ABC's Shark Tank, received offers from all five "sharks" and made a deal with the billionaire investor Mark Cuban in 2015. Visit: http://www.luminaid.com.
About Fish & Richardson
Fish & Richardson is a global patent, intellectual property (IP) litigation and commercial litigation law firm with more than 400 attorneys and technology specialists across the U.S. and Europe. Fish has been named the #1 patent litigation firm in the U.S. for 13 consecutive years and is one of the busiest post-grant firms, representing more petitioners at the PTAB than any other firm. Fish has been winning cases worth billions in controversy – often by making new law – for the most innovative clients and influential industry leaders since 1878. For more information, visit http://www.fr.com.
LuminAID PR Contact:
For further media information, please contact:
Daphna Gall at daphna(at)luminaid(dot)com
(312) 600-8997
Follow LuminAID on Twitter and YouTube @LuminAIDLab, Facebook http://www.fb.com/luminaid, and Instagram @luminaid.
Daphna Gall, LuminAID, http://www.luminaid.com, +1 3126008997, [email protected]
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