Cummins Allison President Douglas U. Mennie Awarded Creator of the Year Award by Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago
Cummins Allison President Douglas U. Mennie Awarded Creator of the Year Award by Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago
May 7, 2014, Mt. Prospect, IL – Cummins Allison, leading innovator and provider of check, currency and coin handling solutions and ATMs, today announced that Douglas U. Mennie, president of Cummins Allison, has been selected to receive the annual Creator of the Year Award by the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago (IPLAC).
The award honors creative achievements in the Chicago metropolitan area. In particular, it recognizes the people or companies behind the creative works in areas protected by intellectual property law, including patented inventions, marketing and branding activities, and creative works of art, music and literature protected by copyright law.
For the past 30 years, Douglas Mennie has been inventing and patenting products related to the field of currency and image processing equipment, systems, and operations. His inventions have been applied to high-speed coin counting, sorting, authenticating, and wrapping devices, high-speed currency bill counting, denominating, authenticating, and sorting devices, as well as currency bill and check imaging devices and financial transaction processing methods.
Patent Protection: The Heart of American Innovation
“Building an environment that fosters education and quality jobs for our citizens has been driven by our ability to innovate and build products on American soil,” said William J. Jones, CEO Cummins Allison. “The Creator of the Year Award truly recognizes those who strive to foster new ideas that translate into a sustained positive climate for American manufacturing, which needs to be guarded by a strong U.S. patent system. In addition to his own innovations, Doug has successfully created a culture of creativity within the organization that enables many of our engineers to develop patents. This, in turn, leads to increased teamwork and a spirit of problem-solving we think is unique. We are genuinely proud of Doug’s contributions to Cummins Allison as a leader and innovator and we are very grateful for his service to our customers and our country.”
“I am truly honored to be recognized with the IPLAC Creator of the Year Award,” Mr. Mennie said.” I have been blessed to work in a field that I love, developing new ideas, creating change and being part of a company that puts its customers and employees first. While I am honored to receive the Creator of the Year award I feel it has been earned by a dedicated team of highly skilled people, not just by an individual. I feel very fortunate that I get to work with great people, doing what I love to do every day.”
As of February 28, 2014, Douglas Mennie has been awarded 157 U.S. patents and was recognized as the sixth most prolific inventor in the Chicago area in 2013 by Crain’s Chicago Business.
Game-changing Innovations: Patented Solutions Revolutionize Operations
Several of Mr. Mennie’s recent patents relate to the unique JetScan iFX® currency and check scanner, the first and only device to image and process both cash and checks, which, until now, have been processed separately. Using the JetScan iFX, commercial depositors can process, balance and submit an entire deposit electronically on a single device, in a fraction of the time. The JetScan iFX increases productivity by processing 1,600 bills per minute and images checks twice as fast as other scanners without sacrificing image quality.
For more information on Cummins Allison’s commitment to innovation please visit cumminsallison.com/innovation.
About Cummins Allison
Cummins Allison is a global leader in developing solutions that quickly and efficiently count, sort and authenticate currency, checks and coin. With a heritage of leadership in technology and product innovation spanning more than 125 years, Cummins Allison serves the majority of financial institutions worldwide, as well as leading organizations in retail, gaming, law enforcement and government. CA holds more than 350 patents and invests double the industry average in R&D. Our world-class sales and service network includes hundreds of local representatives in more than 50 offices in North America, 6 wholly-owned subsidiaries and is represented in more than 70 countries around the world. For more information, visit cumminsallison.com.
Contacts
Carol Moore – Vice President Marketing
Cummins Allison Corp.
Tel: 847.759.6403
moorec@cumminsallison.com
Tim Minor – Senior Vice President
Cummins Allison Corp. Corporate Affairs, Cummins Allison Corp.
Tel: 847-830-8300
MinorT@cumminsallison.com