RE:patent expirationThe patents covering the VP4 technology are much more recent than the 20 yr old ones you are referring to. They have expired or were publicly abandoned 3 or 4 years ago largely because their technology, 100% ozone, was abandoned. That is mentioned in an AGM report. If you have been a shareowner as long as you say you should have read that in an annual report. The 08 crash happened as a result of the Q1 CC when the boss acknowledged that the 100% ozone process was destroyng more than microbes and that many devices were not compatible with O3. That boss was absent at the subsequent AGM in May.
Check US patent Application # 20130236355, dated Sept 12, 2013. A series of applications followed with the latest, of which I have a copy, is Aug 2015, see abstract below.
Take a deep breath and relax we have enough time remaining to do very well as long as TSO3 is not bought out. Take note that one of the signataires , Simon Robitaille, was buying shares on the open market for the RRSPs of his wife and himself at $2.25 around the time of the applications. The patents cover more than the use of two gases in sequence, they also cover the dosing device that maintains the partial pressure of the hydrogen peroxide as the gas condenses on all the surfaces within the chamber. This makes all the surfaces wet with H2O2 and that is a very important aspect of the entire process. The subseqent injection of ozone, O3, reacts with the H2O2 and releases a free radical which is itself a microbe killer. It is a fascinating operation. Those that discovered/invented it deserve our highest respect.
United States Patent 9,101,679
Robitaille , et al. August 11, 2015
Sterilization method and apparatus
Abstract
A method of sterilizing an article by sequentially exposing the article to hydrogen peroxide and ozone is
disclosed. The article is exposed under vacuum first to an evaporated aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide
and subsequently to an ozone containing gas. The exposure is carried out without reducing the water vapor
content of the sterilization atmosphere, the water vapor content being derived from the aqueous solvent of the
hydrogen peroxide solution and from the decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. The
complete sterilization process is carried out while the chamber remains sealed and without removal of any
component of the sterilization atmosphere. For this purpose, the chamber is initially evacuated to a first vacuum
pressure sufficient to cause evaporation of the aqueous hydrogen peroxide at the temperature of the chamber
atmosphere. The chamber is then sealed for the remainder of the sterilization process and during all sterilant
injection cycles. Keeping the chamber sealed and maintaining the hydrogen peroxide and its decomposition
products in the chamber for the subsequent ozone sterilization step results in a synergistic increase in the
sterilization efficiency and allows for the use of much lower sterilant amounts and sterilization cycle times than
would be expected from using hydrogen peroxide and ozone in combination