Donald Weder of Highland, Illinois is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 inventor and businessman. Weder is one of the most prolific inventors in history, with 954USPTO Utility Patent Search for Donald Weder utility patents.

Biography

A lifetime resident of Highland, Illinois

Highland, Illinois

Highland is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 9,433 at the 2010 census. Highland began as a Swiss settlement and derived its name from later German immigrants.Highland is a sister city of Sursee in Switzerland....

, a rural Illinois town 30 miles ENE of St. Louis, Weder is a summa cum laude graduate of Bradley University

Bradley University

Bradley University, founded in 1897, is a private, co-educational university located in Peoria, Illinois. It is a small institution with an enrollment of approximately 6,100 undergraduate and postgraduate students and a full-time faculty of approximately 350....

, where he was in the honor societies Phi Kappa Phi

Phi Kappa Phi

The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is an honor society established 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to area of study and to promote the "unity and democracy of education"...

 and Zeta Pi (honorary business fraternity).

Highland Supply Corporation

Since 1977, Donald Weder has been President of Highland Supply Corporation or "HSC". Founded in 1937 by Donald Weder's father, Erwin Weder, HSC was relatively small until Donald Weder used his patents to grow the company. HSC is now one of the world's leading manufacturers of floral and decorative packaging products with facilities throughout the United States, as well as in Mexico offering over 12,000 products for the floriculture industry.
Highland Supply Corporation has received widespread recognition for its commitment to environmentally safe, water based inks. Over the past three decades, Highland Supply claims to have planted well over 100,000 trees at various sites and preserved over 1000 acres of timberland.

Patents

As at August 3, 2011, Weder holds 954 utility patents and 409USPTO Design Patent Search for Donald Weder design patent

Design patent

In the United States, a design patent is a patent granted on the ornamental design of a functional item. Design patents are a type of industrial design right. Ornamental designs of jewelry, furniture, beverage containers and computer icons are examples of objects that are covered by design...

s for a total of 1363 US patents.

Weder's patents are all related to the floristry

Floristry

Floristry is the general term used to describe production, commerce and trade in flowers. It encompasses flower care and handling, floral design or flower arranging, merchandising, and display and flower delivery. Wholesale florists sell bulk flowers and related supplies to professionals in the trade...

 industry, and specifically to various ways and materials to wrap flowers and flower pots.

Weder is the first of three inventors to pass Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...

 in total number of issued US Patents (including design patents), having done so on August 6, 2002 with the issuance of his 1094th patent (Edison had 1093 US patents, and a total of 2323 US and international utility patents).

He has since been passed by Shunpei Yamazaki

Shunpei Yamazaki

is a Japanese inventor in the field of computer science and solid-state physics. He holds over 2,647 U.S. utility patents, and in 2005 he was named as most prolific inventor in history by USA Today...

 of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and Kia Silverbrook

Kia Silverbrook

Kia Silverbrook is an Australian inventor, scientist, and serial entrepreneur. He is the world's most prolific inventor with 4,097 granted U.S. utility patents as of 23 August 2011...

 of Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

Weder's patents are owned by the Weder Family Trust, an offshore asset protection trust of which his wife Wanda Weder is trustee, administered by Southpac Trusts Limited.

Awards and recognitions

Weder has been honored by civic, inventor and floral industry organizations for his philanthropy as well as his inventorship.

• Thomas Edison award from the US Patent Office in August 2002 for having passed Edison on August 6, 2002 to become the #1 most prolific American US patent holder (2002)
• 1st recipient of the "Donald E Weder Inventor of the Year Award" by the Illinois Innovators and Inventors, Inc. (2002)
• two three-year terms on the Society of American Florists (SAF) Wholesalers Council
• three-year term on the SAF Board of Directors
• chairman of the SAF Building Committee
• four years as Chairman of the Wholesale Florists and Florist Suppliers Association (WF&FSA)Young Executives
• Board of Trustees for the American Floral Endowment

External links

• Highland Supply website

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