Ekos evolves out of chance overseas meeting.(Ekos Corp.)(Brief Article)

Many Puget Sound-area companies have gotten their start based on technology licensed from the University of Washington, but Bothell-based medical device company Ekos Corp. took a different route: the company brought its patents to the university and asked university researchers to help validate them.

The company's ultrasound technology to help dissolve blood clots is based on patents received by two Japanese doctors the father and son team of Shunro and Katsuro Tachibana. The medical researchers have done more than 25 years of research on the medical uses of ultrasound technology at Stanford University, the California Institute of Technology and Fukuoka University in Japan.

During a 1995 business trip to Japan, Ekos …