Woody Norris

Elwood G. "Woody" Norris (born 1938) is an American inventor and founder of multiple public corporations he established to promote, fund 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 several public and private companies to raise capital to commercialize his inventions. Norris is currently the chairman of two of the public companies he founded - American Technology Corporation in San Diego, California and AirScooter Corporation in Henderson, Nevada in addition to heading his private companies.

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 high precision. Norris said he plans to use the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize money to establish a charitable foundation to help struggling independent inventors. Norris' doppler effect-based medical tool was helpful to the development of the sonogram.

Companies founded

Public

• 1980: American Technology Corporation of San Diego, CA. Company name changed to LRAD Corporation in March 2010 after Norris' departure from the company.
• 1988: Norris Communications Corporation of British Columbia, Canada and San Diego, CA - multiple corporate changes from origin. Name changed to e.Digital Corporation in January 1999.
• 1992: Patriot Scientific Corporation of Carlsbad, CA
• 2000: AirScooter Corporation of Henderson, NV
• 2010: Parametric Sound Corporation of Henderson, NV. Parametric Sound Corporation was spun off from LRAD Corporation in September 2010.

Other

• 1979: Norris Industries, Inc., a Utah Corporation (entity # 727009-0142)
• 1983: Jabra Corporation, originally named Norcom Electronics Corporation, a Utah corporation (entity # 839976-0142). It was owned for a time by American Technology Corporation, which sold it to Norris Communications (now e.Digital Corporation), which sold it off to former Norris Communications employees.
• 1988: Norcom Communications Corporation, a Utah corporation (entity # 994358-0142)
• 2000: Aerotwin Motors Corporation, a Nevada corporation.
• 2001: Mt. Savage Productions, a Nevada corporation motion picture production company.
• 2005: Elwood Norris Inventions, LLC, a Nevada corporation.
• 2005: The Elwood and Stephanie Norris Foundation, a Nevada corporation.

Controversy

Norris has come under substantial criticism in the past—while he has been able to greatly enrich himself, as of February 2006, none of the several publicly traded companies he had founded had come anywhere close to profitability.

Key associates

• Robert Putnam - Became employed by Norris in 1984 after graduating from Brigham Young University in 1983. He has held various influential director or officer positions in 3 of Norris' public companies—American Technology Corporation (now LRAD Corporation), Norris Communications (now e.Digital Corporation) and Patriot Scientific Corporation. Putnam now serves as head of media & investor relations for LRAD Corporation.

• Helmult Falk (Sr.) - The sole owner of privately held Nanotronics Corporation, which he 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. He was reappointed President and CEO in January 2009. 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 also a founding investor in both e.Digital Corporation and American Technology Corporation and has participated in numerous loans or equity financing deals for e.Digital.

• 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 both AirScooter Corporation and e.Digital Corporation. He has participated in or been the sole source of numerous loans and equity financing deals for e.Digital.

External links

• Woody Norris personal website
• "Woody Norris patents". US Patent & Trademark Office. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&TERM1=norris%2C+elwood+g.&FIELD1=INNM&co1=AND&TERM2=&FIELD2=&d=PTXT. 
• 2005 Video Clip of Woody Norris