Patents

Current Status of Patent Applications

In November 2006, AEC made a formal application for a provisional patent on its enhanced production technology, including the modifications that produce its by-products. A provisional patent application establishes an official United States patent application filing date for an invention and permits one year's authorization to use a "Patent Pending" notice in connection with the invention and to assess the invention's commercial potential before committing to the higher cost of filing and prosecuting a non-provisional application for patent. Since that time, in early May, this patent issued.

Patent Search Results

The firm of Ridout and Maybee recently became the Company's patent attorneys in Toronto and have completed supplemental exhaustive IP searches to confirm 'novelty' of the Company's technology. To date, they have been unable to find a single patent that produces hydrogen and resultant by-products using our methods. According to Ridout and Maybee, AEC's technology is therefore novel. In addition, our patent attorneys have suggested that due to the similarity between the methods of production for all four by-products, a patent on the overall 'concept' could be considered and potentially invaluable to the Company and its shareholders.