About

Applied technology, intellectual property, and the public interest.

Purpose

The Center for Applied Innovation was created to manage education, public policy outreach, and related economic activity around applied technology and intellectual property (IP) rights in the State of Illinois and around the world. Applied technology is defined as proven IP or technology that is in use or was developed for a specific purpose and protected by patents and/or patent applications, as well as other forms of intellectual property such as trademarks and copyrights.

The Center for Applied Innovation was created at the suggestion of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Office to support public policy and economic activity around applied technology and IP.

Leadership & membership

A volunteer Board oversees all initiatives undertaken by the Center.

James E. Malackowski

Chairman

James E. Malackowski is the Chief Intellectual Property Officer (CIPO) of J.S. Held LLC and the firm's Intellectual Property Practice Leader with shared responsibility for the firm's Artificial Intelligence strategy.

He is the Co-founder of Ocean Tomo, LLC, an integrated Intellectual Capital Merchant Banc™ firm providing financial products and services related to Intellectual Property. Ocean Tomo, a part of J.S. Held, assists clients — corporations, law firms, governments and institutional investors — in realizing Intellectual Capital Equity® value broadly defined.

Kristi L. Stathis

Board Member

Kristi L. Stathis is a senior marketing executive experienced at the development and implementation of corporate brand management, advertising, and promotional programs successfully driving near-term revenue consistent with overall corporate strategy and business development objectives. For more than twenty years, Ms. Stathis has been responsible for creating and executing messaging, protocols, and procedures both as a principal as well as on behalf of her client interests.

Earlier in her career, in response to a discovered need to address measurement for outdoor advertising, Ms. Stathis created a novel means to engage clients through abbreviated dial reverse charge telephony services. Originally formed as Cellular Linking, Inc., Ms. Stathis assisted in development of overall marketing strategy leading to the sale of the company to a consortium of private equity sponsors investing a total of more than $40 million. Ms. Stathis' inventions led to a portfolio of six issued and pending United States patents.