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Eric Smith, the owner of Impression Products, has been given the inaugural Michael Cardone Leadership Award.
aftermarketNews has revealed that the owner of Charleston-based family business, Impression Products, was named the recipient of the inaugural award at the MERA-Golisano Annual Conference, which was held on 4 October 2017 in Troy, Michigan.
MERA – The Remanufacturing Association developed the Michael Cardone Leadership Award “to recognise individuals who demonstrate exceptional leadership in remanufacturing and sustainability” and it celebrates four “key traits” in particular: namely, “vision, passion, teamwork and excellence.”
The award’s namesake is Michael Cardone Jr., MERA’s founding chairman and the co-founder of family business CARDONE Industries Inc., which supplies new and remanufactured automotive products to companies across the globe.
Eric Smith could not attend the event but MERA’s president and CEO, John Chalifoux, accepted the award on his behalf, commenting, “With this award, we recognise and thank Eric Smith, the man behind the company that won a key case for remanufacturing in the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Chalifoux was referring to the landmark toner cartridge patent case, which came to a conclusion in June this year. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision “addressed the question of whether a patent owner may prevent certain reuse, including remanufacturing, of patented products” and the Court “continued to fully endorse secondary markets for patented goods under the doctrine of patent exhaustion.”
Smith issued a statement in response to his receipt of the Leadership award, saying, “I want to express my sincere appreciation to MERA for recognizing me with the inaugural Michael Cardone Leadership Award! I am beyond ecstatic to be the first recipient of such a prestigious award, as I have watched the Cardone family from afar and have nothing but the utmost respect for all their efforts in advancing the remanufacturing industry.”