Photo by Jennifer Alsabrook-Turner, UAB Marketing and CommunicationsBeing named on a U.S. patent is one the highlights of a researcher’s career, guaranteed to occupy a prized place on a CV. But the most tangible aspect of that accomplishment is the eight-digit string that marks the patent’s place in numerical order since the first numbered U.S. patents were awarded in 1836.
Starting this spring, researchers at UAB who are named on a full patent also will get a material token of their hard work and dedication: a ceremonial coin stamped with their name and that all-important patent number. The patent coin recognition program is led by the UAB Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which is the hub for innovations developed by UAB faculty and staff.
Seventeen U.S. patents were issued to UAB inventors in fiscal year 2024. Forty UAB inventors were named on those 17 patents. Coins will be presented to inventors at the university from that year forward, says Karthik Gopalakrishnan, Ph.D., director of Licensing and New Ventures at the Harbert Institute. Roughly half of the approximately 40 coins have already been awarded, with the rest to come in the next several weeks.
At a ceremony in the Department of Physics, chair Ilias Perakis, Ph.D. (far left) and the Harbert Institute’s Diptiman Chanda, Ph.D. (far right) honored patent coin awardees Riley Yager (center left) and Andrei Stanishevsky, Ph.D. (center right).“At the Harbert Institute, we are consistently working to build relationships with the many inventors on UAB’s campus,” Gopalakrishnan said. “This patent coin program is both a way to celebrate our inventors’ achievements and an opportunity to inspire others to recognize the impact that developing novel intellectual property can bring to an organization.”
Among the first recipients of the coins were Andrei Stanishevsky, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Physics, who received three coins for his three patents awarded in 2024, and Riley Yager, a graduate student in the Stanishevsky lab, who was named on one of the patents. The coins were awarded to Stanishevsky and Yager by HIIE Senior Licensing Associate Diptiman Chanda, Ph.D., in a ceremony in the physics department before a crowd of more than 50 students, faculty and staff.
Gopalakrishnan notes that the journey to being named on a patent can only begin with an intellectual property disclosure. “For us to protect a new invention, we have to know about it,” he said.