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Students from Lund University, Sweden Win $5,000 Global Award from the Licensing Executives Society International

 

Student Start-Up ShieldHeart Invents Device to Minimize Deadly Complications Associated with Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Systems   

LONDON, June 7, 2011-- Student entrepreneurs from Lund University, Sweden received the $5,000 Licensing Executives Society International (LESI) Global Award for their start-up company, ShieldHeart which has developed a protection device technology platform to ‘shield’ vital organs, blood vessels and nerves from ruptures and bleeding that are often associated with Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) systems. The Global Award is presented annually, in conjunction with the LES Foundation Graduate Student Business Plan Competition, to the student team whose plan best deals with intellectual property (IP) rights and their use in the global business environment.

The Competition, hosted by the LES Foundation along with the Licensing Executives Society (U.S.A. and Canada), Inc., and LESI, is now in its 8th year. The event, which has earned sponsorship from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation uniquely, focuses on graduate student business plans that emphasize intellectual property (IP) assets and strategies for how these assets will be leveraged to achieve business goals.  This year’s Finals and Awards Ceremony were held at the LESI Annual Conference in London.

“We have been enormously happy to host the Finals this year and to help bring this Competition to the global scale,” said LESI President Alan Lewis. “Education is central to our mission and we feel this event helps give students the understanding and tools they need to effectively use the power and value of IP to build and sustain competitive advantage in business.”

Global Award Recipient

ShieldHeart has invented a device to help counter deadly side effects that have been associated with NPWT, a technique that has revolutionized wound care over the past decade. According to the team, reports surfaced in the early 2000’s about serious complications associated NPWT, including massive bleeding and rupture of vital organs. The United States Food and Drug Administration issued warnings about the side effects of NPWT in 2009 and again in February of this year, however, health care practitioners continue to use the technique lacking a viable alternative.

“ShieldHeart scientists were first to identify the cause and effect relationship between NPWT and heart rupture in 2006. Since then they have created a functioning organ protection device technology that has received patents in Sweden and the United States and has patents pending in other countries,” said ShieldHeart’s Ola Rickardsson. “Pre-clinical trials have been made and we are preparing for human clinical trials.”

Grand Prize Winner

Lund was one of six finalist teams from across the globe that participated in the LES Competition Finals. The 2011 Grand Prize went to Washington University-St. Louis, USA for their biomedical startup, NanoMed, LLC., aimed at revolutionizing neurological surgical mesh using state-of-the-art biomaterials that are easier to use and more easily integrated into the body.

In all, seventy-eight teams participated in the 2011 Competition. ShieldHeart was one of six finalist teams chosen to receive all-expenses-paid trips to attend the London meeting where they presented their IP-based business plans to a world-class panel of judges in competition for:

  • The $10,000 Grand Prize
  • Each runner-up team receives $1,000
  • The $5,000 LES International Global Award
  • The opportunity to select from a valuable pool of in-kind prizes worth more than $100,000 from donors including Bracewell & Giuliani, Charles River & Associates (CRA), Ellis IP Limited, Finnegan, Fisher Adams Kelly, Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLC,  McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP (MBHB), Sim & McBurney Lowman Ashton & McKay LLP.

“We are enormously proud of the exponential growth the LES Foundation’s Competition has seen over the past 8 years. Students are drawn to the event not only for its unfailingly high caliber of participants, but also for the unique professional platform it provides, well beyond the event itself, in the form of educational offerings, feedback and mentoring from IP experts and networking opportunities with professionals in every industry,” said Linda Chao, Senior Licensing Associate, Stanford University and Chair of the LES Foundation Competition.

This year’s runner-up teams include:

  • Saint Petersburg State University, Russia: Computer Vision.
  • University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia: leapin.com.au
  • University of Arkansas, USA: cycleWood Solutions, LLC 
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA: Imbed Biosciences

The 2012 LES Foundation International Graduates Student Business Plan Competition will be held at the LES (USA & Canada) Inc., Spring Meeting in Boston, MA, May15, 2012. For more information on the LES Foundation and the Competition visit www.lesfoundation.org.

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About Licensing Executives Society (U.S.A. and Canada) Inc., LES International and the LES Foundation: The Licensing Executives Society, (U.S.A. and Canada) Inc. is the pre-eminent professional organization in the field of IP transfer and commercialization in the U.S.A. and Canada. It is one of over 30 member societies of the Licensing Executives Society International (LESI), which has over 12,000 members in 80 countries worldwide. The LES Foundation was established by the Licensing Executives Society, (U.S.A. and Canada), Inc., to increase awareness and understanding of the licensing of intellectual property rights and to communicate the critical role licensing plays in bringing creativity and innovation to the commercial marketplace.