That is merely a patent Application. It does not mean a patent was granted.
This is from ZVTK's last 10K filing...
Patents and Trademarks
On April 2, 2005, Mr. Ryu (and Mr. Chang Min Lee the co-inventor) filed US Patent Application No. 11/097,767 (Publication No. 2006/0078460) entitled “Anion General for Incorporation into Lighting Apparatuses and Other Appliances” with the US Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). The initial application was rejected on various grounds. Mr. Ryu filed a response and amendment to the initial application with the USPTO on September 9, 2007. Mr. Ryu filed a continuation-in-part (CIP) application on August 7, 2008, serial no. 12/221,908, which claims the benefit of no. 11/097,767, now abandoned. The CIP application adds some new enhancements to the bulb design that further distinguish the invention over the prior art. As of the date of this Annual Report, the CIP is pending and has not yet been examined. We cannot offer any assurance that the application will ultimately be approved by the USPTO. In addition, there is an international patent application on file under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), No PCT/KR2005/002997 (Publication No. WO/2006/031036) entitled Negative Ion Emission Lamp. We intend to file additional applications, as appropriate to protect our rights in the Ionic Bulb.
A divisional application, serial no. 11/820,915, is pending. It is directed to an ionic air purifying device in an appliance such as a fan (rather than in a CFL light bulb). A response to an office action is due October 28, 2009 with one 3 month extension of time. No further extensions are available. .
The initial application for trademark protection for the “Ionic Bulb” brand name was rejected. There is no assurance that trademark protection will ultimately be procured.
Notwithstanding, Mr. Ryu’s and our efforts to protect proprietary rights in the Ionic Bulb, existing trade secret, copyright, and trademark laws afford only limited protection. Further, the assignment of the US Patent Application by the co-inventor has not been perfected by filing with the USPTO. Until such time as this filing is perfected, it is possible that the co-inventor could license the Ionic Bulb to another party. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights and other intellectual property, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our products, obtain and use information that we regard as proprietary or misappropriate our copyrights, trademarks, trade dress, and similar proprietary rights. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary rights to as great an extent as do the laws of the United States. Our means of protecting our proprietary rights may not be adequate. In addition, our competitors might independently develop similar technology or duplicate our products or circumvent any patents or our other intellectual property rights.
