In addition to the great posts from Waterboy and Hazeycloud, I too received a very nice reply from Robert. This guy has taken the time out of his busy schedule (as you will read below, he's a few hours from catching his flight to see his daughter compete) to respond in a very detailed, comprehensive manner. He is a professional through and through. Here's his response to many of our questions but in the end, you will see his absolute conviction in working with Design 1st in bringing this product to market:
Dear XXXX:
Yes, I have returned a few emails , one of which may have been to an individual using the alias of XXXX. There some elements that I can have an impact on and others that I unfortunately cannot. First I would like to explain that my personal response is exactly that, a personal response. I am not replying on behalf of Wanderport as my association with the company is strictly that of Licensor. I am not absolutely certain but I believe that the Licensing Agreement is posted and I believe that this would be a good place for anyone wanting to understand the relationship and my obligations to start from. That being said, I believe that my association with Wanderport is a good one and so allow me to provide you with answers to your questions and a brief chronology of the last 11 years of my life ?.
I have filed numerous patent applications over the years for technology and products touching different industries. Whenever I expect to attempt commercialization of any of these technologies I file a preliminary and then, usually license this to a company that may be of interest. Then , due to the high costs associated with patent counsel and patent cooperation treaty filings including examination and maintenance, I defer the costs related to these items to the licensee. My first application was for a device called the “credit chip” and the technology under the name of the “mx vehicle defence system” went on to win a prestigious national award (Canadian Security Magazine Award) in 2000 (if memory serves me correctly, plus or minus a year or 2). The applications for these products were irrevocably assigned to a third-party and so I willingly gave up any claim of ownership to the IP and product at that time. Products using elements defined within the IP and product offering of these initial filings are still in use today.
In 2004 I filed a patent application for a microwave water heater which formed the basis of the technology that went on to win the TIPTA award and, this too was licensed with the condition that the licensee maintain and develop the IP. The commercial venture that this filing related to unfortunately failed. I was precluded from working independently in the water heating industry during this process and so only became involved again about 2-3 years ago. The 2004 filing was allowed to lapse and , as such is now in the public domain. Given my knowledge of where we currently are with regards to both the technology and the product I do not view this as a problem.
My interest in the heater was re-kindled when I was introduced to Andrew. He had explained to me that he was looking for a solid technology and product to help bring to market. He had heard of some of the things that I had worked on and was wondering if there was a basis to build from. After a period of time, Barry from Wanderport agreed to execute an agreement with me that would allow the Company to benefit from what I had developed and , more importantly, what I was to develop for products relating to this field. Since then I worked with them and I have filed additional IP in addition to furthering the product development to the point where what we currently own only vaguely resembles what I had disclosed 7 years ago. To this end, I represent to you and to the Company that I have IP , applications specifically, that the company is responsible in bearing the cost relating to the process of examination and approval. Furthermore any additional applications relating to microwave water heating must also form part of the existing licensing agreement. Also, all IP resulting from the involvement of Design1st and their related parties, by contract, will be assigned to the writer and will subsequently be included within the existing licensing agreement. . Patent applications, whether in the pending, pct or national phase is public information that becomes available according to prescribed schedules. I won’t accelerate the publishing of this information which, in my view, could compromise my position as licensor or Wanderports’ position as licensee . The information filed and that I continue to develop and file periodically represents my continuing work in the field and my concern is that by prematurely releasing anything that it would be to the detriment to my work and commercialization efforts in this field. I will tell you that the challenges related to this product relate specifically to heating water in a dynamic environment and that this has been the focus of our development. In conclusion I can confirm that there is , in my opinion, valid IP and sufficient innovation in our current development to help Wanderport gain an edge in their effort to commercialize. I can also tell you that Wanderport had spent considerable time and effort in validating all pertaining to this venture and I’m especially impressed by the fact that they worked validated the commercial viability with international prospects, some of whom I’ve met and are very well respected and active in this field.
As technical advisor I can perhaps bring you up to speed on issues relating to the MHU. The SCMHU has been built and fully tested using a generation 2 heat exchanger. The favorable results of these tests combined with extrapolated performance data have resulted in us receiving the approval to proceed with the design and construction of the MCMHU. We are currently waiting to receive some components that are on order and expect them to arrive by the end of August. In the interim we are working on the gen3 heat exchanger and some mechanical design elements for the MCMHU.
FYI, just a quick primer on some terminology that we use: Microwave Heating Unit (MHU) Single Cavity (SC) and Multiple Cavity (MC).... The MCMHU in its present embodiment is essentially 4x the 'inners' of the SCMHU and ought not to pose significant technical challenges.
I’d also like to address the issue of Certification with you please. I had done a fair amount of work to identify , interface with and short-list certain labs that may assist us with the certification process. What is significant is that the product that we will bring to market is like no other. So, in essence, after selecting UL we are “back to school” in that we are studying current standards as they pertain to the eventual product so that we may apply them to the MCMHU and we have been invited to work with UL on a classification that will be deemed “new and innovative” which will likely incorporate new standards unique to a MHU. Andrew had invited Dave Myers to attend the meeting with me so that I, and by default Wanderport, could benefit from his extensive industry knowledge. Please note that UL does not certify “works in progress” but rather certifies “products” in addition to offering assistance towards the attaining of certification as a process, not exclusively as an event , as some would believe. We have reviewed the SCMHU with UL solely to determine the requirements so that they could be incorporated into the MCMHU. We will be working with certification lab(s) to obtain approval of MCMHU type products. Thus we will complete the MCMHU prior to receiving any certification. The company has interest in the product from markets that do not require UL and it may decide to offer the product to these markets as a first step in the commercialization. This will be a company decision but it is a distinct possibility.
During the past 11 years I have founded, owned and operated Universal Surveillance Systems EAS inc., a Canadian vendor of Electronic Article Surveillance and RFiD solutions for retailers. As a result of the softening of the retail market coinciding with the collapse of the housing marked and economic down turn I decided to re-focus my efforts from the security field to the green technology field. I’ve since exited the security business by selling the assets of USS EAS inc. and am now putting all of my efforts into green technologies One of my creations is the POSiLiGHT, a position-able and eco-friendly lighting solution designed for food retailers.. I had decided to attempt to pitch the product to some wealthy VC’s in a nationally televised show called Dragons’ Den for the purpose of either getting beaten up (upon which I may have abandoned the idea) or validation (in the form of securing an offer from these very savvy individuals). As a result of the show I have received lots of free publicity (including exposure to over 2 million viewers and a full page in the National Post) and the validation that I was looking for pertaining to my decision to reposition my efforts from security to green. POSiLiGHT currently manufactures and ships products throughout the Americas and is showing promise as a commercial entity. I now operate POSiLiGHT in addition to consulting for Wanderport. With regards to my back ground, I have also done the “corporate stint” with the Atlas Aerospace Division of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in the late 80’s (having worked in Canada, the UK and the USA) and have also worked with major US based technology companies in the retail security field. Leaving the retail security field was a major life decision as it has been my source of income and creative outlet for so many years. The Dragons and Wanderport have helped me make that decision one that I am not regretting.
I cannot recommend that you expand, maintain, or liquidate your current investment position with Wanderport as I am an advisor, albeit in a technical capacity, to the Company and as such it would be improper. The contents of this email are my opinions and are not necessarily the opinion of Wanderport. I suggest that you contact Investor Relations for additional information pertaining to the Company if required. I know that there is a lot of uncertainty and “noise” precipitated by the AMF decision ( a decision made against Andrew without them ever having contacting him in any way, so I’m told) and that Andrew is replying to the allegations as they relate to him. The company is aware of what is going on and is watching this closely. Andrew has agreed to continue in the position of IR during the initial phases of the AMF hearing. This may change however I believe that it is important to recognize that neither Andrew nor Wanderport (under Barry or Richard) have discouraged nor prevented me from helping to educate interested parties, including shareholders , on the technology or product status. In fact, up until as recently as 2 weeks ago I had some interested parties at my office to review the status of this very exciting project in its’ developed state. My personal time constraints are such that I won’t be able to interface as much with interested parties, such as yourself as much as I’d like as I will need to once again work intensely on the MCMHU as soon as some needed parts arrive. One point that I’d like to add is that it is not uncommon, in the electronics industry to have component lead times extending to months….something that is sometimes a source of frustration and that I need to work with. That is one reason why I actually have a little “bandwidth” now to be able to help bring understanding to the current situation.
I’ve got a flight to catch in a few hours to Milano where I will be cheering on the Canadian team (and specifically my daughter) as they compete in the COMEN cup competition for synchronized swimming (can be compared to the European version of the PAN AM games). My mother is a US citizen and is a landed immigrant in Canada so I may also cheer for USA ? Thanks for your interest. I am happy that you appreciated the information that you have received from other interested parties thus far and assure you that I intend on bringing a water heater to market. I too am concerned about the present situation with regards to Wanderport and other world situations and hope that they will be cleared up sooner rather than later. In the mean time, both I and Design 1st are going to be building the MCMHU………
Kind regards
Robert
