Today we held the Utah Genius awards honoring a large number of Utah geniuses.  There are many definitions of genius.  The one I like the best is "an individual who successfully applies a previously unknown technique in the production of a work of art, science, or calculation, or who masters and personalizes a known technique."  The people and companies we honored today have shown their exceptional capacity by obtaining a large number of patents in a single year (5 were required to make the top 20) or creation of new products as shown by their trademark registrations.  A full list of winners will be up soon on utahgenius.com. 

I just want to thank the people at my firm.  It is a challenge doing an award ceremony where the honorees do not put in for the award.  With this being our first year, we had to convince a number of inventors and companies that we were not trying to sell them anything.  It took many calls to track down the fifty-seven honorees for this year's event and get photographs and other information needed.  

It was also a challenge getting everything ready for the nearly 300 attendees at the luncheon, but we were rewarded by the caliber of people who showed up.  The best part of the program was when Dinesh Patel received a standing ovation when awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.   In his typical humble style, Dr. Patel doubted whether he qualified for the award.  If he doesn't, we are in trouble, because I cannot think of anyone more qualified to be called a Utah Genius.

It has been a fun ride and we hope next year's program will be even better.