Woody Norris

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Elwood G. "Woody" Norris is an American inventor and founder of multiple public corporations he established to promote and commercialize his inventions.

Career

Forgoing college, Norris joined the United States Air Force in 1956 and was trained as a nuclear weapons specialist, taking courses at the University of New Mexico. In 1959, he became the director of the Engineering Experiment Station for the University of Washington.

In the ensuing years, Norris became a serial entrepreneur, founding and co-founding many public and private companies to raise capital and commercialize his inventions.

Norris was the winner of the 2005 Lemelson-MIT Prize for his invention of a "hypersonic sound" system which allows sound to be focused with laser-like precision, Norris is currently the chairman of two companies he founded - American Technology Corporation in San Diego and AirScooter Corporation in Henderson, Nevada. Norris said he plans to use the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize money to establish a charitable foundation to help struggling independent inventors.^[1]

Woody Norris inventions

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Companies founded by Woody Norris

Public

• 1980: American Technology Corporation of San Diego, California

• 1988: e.Digital Corporation of San Diego, CA. Originally named Norris Communications Corporation of British Columbia, Canada - multiple corporate changes from origin.

• 1992: Patriot Scientific Corporation of Carlsbad, CA

• 2000: AirScooter Corporation of Henderson, NV

Other

• 1979: Norris Industries, Inc., a Utah Corporation (entity # 727009-0142)^[2]

• 1983: Norcom Electronics Corporation, a Utah corporation (entity # 839976-0142) that was later re-named Jabra Corporation and was owned for a time by American Technology, which sold it to Norris Communications (now e.Digital), which sold it off.

• 1988: Norcom Communications Corporation, a Utah corporation (entity # 994358-0142)

• 2000: Aerotwin Motors Corporation, a Nevada corporation. ^[3]

• 2001: Mt. Savage Productions, a Nevada corporation motion picture production company.^[4]

• 2005: Elwood Norris Inventions, LLC, a Nevada corporation.^[5]

• 2005: The Elwood and Stephanie Norris Foundation, a Nevada corporation.^[6]

Controversy

Norris has come under substantial criticism in the past -- while he has been able to greatly enrich himself, none of the several publicly traded companies he has founded has come anywhere close to profitability.^[7]

Key associates

• Robert Putnam - Became employed by Norris just after graduation from BYU in 1983. Has held various influential director or officer positions in 3 of Norris' public companies - American Technology Corporation, Norris Communications/now e.Digital Corporation and Patriot Scientific Corporation. Putnam now serves as a Senior VP and head of investor relations for both American Technology Corporation and e.Digital Corporation.

• Helmult Falk (Sr.) - The sole owner of privately held Nanotronics Corporation, which was sold to Patriot Scientific Corporation. He became President and CEO of Patriot and served as such until his untimely death from cancer. Patent rights to a microprocessor technology owned by Nanotronics were later recognized as the primary asset of Patriot Scientific. Licensing of these patent rights has become the sole income for Patriot Scientific.

• Alfred H. "Fred" Falk - Began his career in 1978 working for one of Helmut Falk's earlier start-ups, DH Technology, and stayed until its sale in 1988. From 1988 - 1995 he worked at Personal Computer Products, Inc. and Resources Internationale. He joined e.Digital (Norris Communications) in 1995 as VP of Corporate Development. He was appointed President and Director of Norris/e.Digital in January 1997 and CEO in July 1998. On July 1, 2004 Fred Falk stepped down as e.Digital’s President and CEO to serve again as VP of Corporate Development. Falk took courses at two California community colleges - Palomar College in San Marcos and Foothill College in Los Altos, but did not achieve a college degree.

• James "Jim" Barnes - Co-founder of Airscooter Corporation and associate of Woody Norris on other public and private ventures according to public records. Barnes was a founding investor in both e.Digital Corporation and American Technology Corporation.

• Jerry E. Polis - Founder, Chairman, CEO and majority shareholder of ASI Technology Corporation, and associate of Woody Norris on other public and private ventures according to public records. Polis is a greater than 5% shareholder of AirScooter Corporation and e.Digital Corporation. He also controls all current debt instruments of e.Digital through fully owned Davric Corporation and fully controlled ASI Technology Corporation.

References

External links

• Woody Norris personal website
• "Woody Norris patents". US Patent & Trademark Office.
• 2005 Video Clip of Woody Norris