Patent Your Invention & Innovation Archipelago

Learn from a dynamic technology patent panel with inventors from Hawai'i and moderated by a former U.S. Patent Examiner.

THE INVENTORS

John Ogawa Borland - 8 PATENTS - first patent 1990, last patent 2023.

John was raised in Honolulu and graduated from Radford High School. He received his BS and MS degrees in Material Science and Engineering from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was awarded 6 US patents in the semiconductor industry and 2 Japanese patents in solar storage.

John worked for the largest semiconductor companies in Silicon Valley and Boston where he designed equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor chips. In 1996, a press release of John's patent award resulted in a one day jump in Genus' stock by 25%. He has published over 184 technical papers and delivered them internationally. He is now back home in Aiea pioneering new Nano-Grid Solar to bring affordable energy to low income households around the world. He pioneered the first Nano-Grid Solar+Batteries in 2023 for Hawaiian Homesteaders on Molokai. https://energyequity.life/

Olin Kealoha Lagon - 12 PATENTS - first patent 2007, last patent 2016.

Olin is a Native Hawaiian social entrepreneur who grew up in Kalihi in public housing and flunked out of high school. He joined the military where he had a perfect score in mechanics. His teacher encouraged him to become an engineer. Olin attended Honolulu Community College and discovered entrepreneurship his senior year. Olin graduated from UH Manoa with a 4.0.

Olin has patented numerous concepts that have been used by millions of people around the world, including the world's first online crowdfunding service. He helped create WorldPoint, a Web translation software company whose clients included Nike, FedEx and Kodak.

Olin founded Shifted Energy to help grid operators lower operating costs. Over 95% of Shifted Energy's deployments are in underserved areas including Hawaiian homesteads. Last year, his company was acquired by a San Francisco-based grid technology firm.

Hoala Greevy - 10 PATENTS - first patent 2020, last patent 2026.

Hoala is a Native Hawaiian entrepreneur who grew up in Liliha Valley and graduated from McKinley High School. He earned a B.S. in Geography and Social Sciences from Portland State University. He is the founder and CEO of PauBox, the leading provider of HIPAA-compliant email. He founded the company in Hawaii and moved it to San Francisco to pursue new national markets. PauBox currently has over 8,000 customers. Hoala holds ten patents related to email security.

Why patents? Hoala says his mission is for his PauBox to become the market leader for HIPAA complaint communications. His expanding patent portfolio is a data point supporting that ambition. https://www.paubox.com/

To give back to his community, the CEO established Paubox Kahikina Scholarship, an annual award designed to encourage Native Hawaiian students to pursue careers in STEM fields. https://www.paubox.com/kahikina-stem-scholarship

PANEL MODERTOR

Matt Bottomly, is currently a patent partner at ThornCrest Law in California and Hawai'i. Matt was previously an in-house patent attorney for DISNEY in Burbank.

Matt earned a B.S. in Astrophysics from UCLA and his J.D. from George Mason University - Antonin Scalia Law School, with a Patent Law and Litigation Concentration. He was a Patent Examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Washington DC.

Matt is experienced with consumer electronics, semiconductors, telecommunications, RFID, fantasy sports, video games, streaming media, and augmented reality. He is heavily involved with the start-up community.

NEW BOOK: The Innovation Archipelago - by Olin Lagon and Timothy Dick. Preview of a book to be published later this fall.