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Congratulations to 2020 Patents for Humanity Winners!

Today, the United States Patent and Trademark Office announced the 2020 Patents for Humanity winners. These are innovators who invented groundbreaking technologies to meet global humanitarian crises.  And, the winners are: 

  • “Global Vision 2020 (Maryland), for developing the USee Vision Kit, used to provide prescription eyeglasses cost-effectively to hundreds of people, particularly in remote parts of the world, who normally do not have access to vision care.
  • Sisu Global (Maryland), for creating the Hemafuse, a highly effective, mechanical alternative to transfusing donor blood. With a simple push and pull of a handle, the Hemafuse can salvage, filter, and recycle blood from an internal bleeding in trauma, without the use of electricity.
  • Sanaria Inc. (Maryland), for developing a whole parasite vaccine for malaria. 
  • Flexcrevator (North Carolina), for creating a machine that enables fast, safe, and hygienic fecal sludge removal, surpassing manual emptying.
  • NEWgenerator (Florida), for utilizing state-of-the-art membrane bioreactor technology to create a machine capable of the simultaneous recovery of nutrients, energy, and water from wastewater.
  • Nonspec (Massachusetts), for providing affordable and highly adjustable prosthetic limb systems to amputees that can be taken off the shelf and adjusted in under an hour to those in need.”

For more information, please see https://www.uspto.gov/ip-policy/patent-policy/patents-humanity/2020-award-recipients

About the Author

Babak Akhlaghi is a registered patent attorney and the Managing Director of NovoTech Patent Firm, where he helps technology companies build investor‑grade patent portfolios that support fundraising, defensibility, and long‑term competitive advantage. His practice centers on patent strategy, portfolio architecture, and high‑leverage drafting for companies developing AI, machine learning, quantum computing, advanced software‑driven systems, robotics, and other emerging technologies.

Babak is also a permanent Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland, where he teaches Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship, bringing real‑world IP strategy experience directly into the academic environment.

He is a co‑author of the Patent Applications Handbook, published annually by West Publications (Clark Boardman Division) since 1992, and widely used by practitioners as a technical and procedural reference.

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