SSTP and Patents...
One argument I have read as to why there are no SSTP patents for Vertroleum goes like this:
If they were to patent it, JR would be required to disclose the secret catalyst as part of the patent application process, and without doing so, a patent would not be issued. The danger in this lies in the fact that USSE/SSTP envision power plant projects all over the world and many countries do not recognize or respect U.S. patents. Individuals or companies in those countries would be able to find out exactly how Vertroleum is made (secret catalyst and all) and make it themselves, effectively denying a potential market to USSE/SSTP, who would have no recourse to enjoin such use in a country that doesn't recognize U.S. patents.
Protecting the formula/process/catalyst for Vertroleum as a trade secret insulates USSE/SSTP from unredressable infringement by people and companies in such nations. Trade secret protection also exists for a potentially unlimited duration, whereas patent protection has a definite time limit.
Of course, the downside to protecting Vertroleum as a trade secret is the possibility that it will somehow be discovered (via reverse engineering, employee leak, etc.) Absent a cause of action for misappropriation, once a trade secret becomes known by legitimate means, any protection it had evaporates and the "discoverer" of another party's trade secret may use it as he will.
Lastly, there is always the possibility that JR is simply doing what it seems he does best (as all the recent legal troubles attest), that is, lying and perpetrating a fraud as to his ability to produce this seemingly magical biocrude via the so-called Rivera Process.
I suppose only time will tell.
