EnWave Corporation (TSX VENTURE:ENW) ("EnWave", or the "Company") has received positive comments from the Patent Examiner with regard to the Company's Patent Co-Operation Treaty ("PCT") patent application for nutraREVTM equipment concept and use, leading the Company to believe that a favorable International Preliminary Report on Patentability ("IPRP") is forthcoming. The PCT process allows inventors to obtain patent priority in more than 140 countries at the same time, thereby saving considerable time and deferring the cost of individual national filings for 30 months. EnWave has now filed a Canadian national patent application for the nutraREVTM equipment with a request for expedited review in order to receive an issued patent as quickly as possible. The Company believes a Canadian patent on this technology will further reinforce its nutraREVTM marketing success which is already protected by six (6) issued patents.
EnWave holds an expanding intellectual property portfolio designed to protect the technology and knowledge base of the company. In addition to patent filings on EnWave's other Radiant Energy Vacuum dehydration processes and equipment, the Company holds an exclusive world-wide license from the University of British Columbia for a number of food and biopharmaceutical dehydration patents which were invented at the UBC laboratory of EnWave's founder and Co-CEO, Dr. Tim Durance. To-date, the Company has obtained the exclusive global rights to food-related patents for the dehydration of low-fat snack foods, potato pieces, krill, medicinal plants, fruit, and berries. The new patent would be the first one to directly protect the Company's industrial-scale vacuum microwave food dehydration equipment.
"EnWave has a long-standing commitment to the patent process in order to protect our valuable technology from unlicensed manufacture and use," stated Dr. Tim Durance, EnWave's Chairman & Co-CEO. "As a research and development organization, patents are a critical step in the bid to commercialize our Radiant Energy Vacuum dehydration technologies for food, food cultures and biopharmaceuticals. We expect to sell equipment and collect royalties throughout much of the world, making wide patent coverage valuable."
EnWave expects that the Canadian patent will be reviewed over the next few months, and a decision announced in Q1, 2010. The Company will then proceed with further national filings to ensure protection in major markets throughout the world.
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