MT. PROSPECT, Ill. — Crain’s Chicago Business recently recognized Cummins Allison, a provider of coin- and currency-handling solutions, for placing highly on the business magazine’s Eureka Innovation List.
Crain’s ranked Cummins Allison third on its annual list. The company has consistently been ranked within the top three most innovative companies in Chicago, based on number and quality of patents, since the Eureka Innovation List was launched in 2012.
Patents are an important incentive for research investment and technological development, helping businesses and individuals protect their investments, promote their goods and services and prevent deception in the marketplace, says William J. Jones, CEO of Cummins Allison.
“In addition, innovation and a strong U.S. patent system creates jobs, helps U.S. companies compete in the international marketplace and strengthens the American economy,” he adds. “We are appreciative of the continued recognition by Crain’s of Cummins Allison’s long-standing dedication to fostering innovation and delivering industry-changing technologies.”
Crain’s enlisted the help of a Chicago-based merchant bank specializing in intellectual property to create its Innovation List. The uniqueness of inventions covered by patents, as well as other factors, is used to produce a patent quality score, which was averaged across all the patents awarded to a company for the year.
Cummins Allison was awarded 16 patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2015, including new technologies that help count and process coins, improve cash vault operations, automate cash/check deposit processing, increase counterfeit detection and streamline check/currency imaging.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].