SunWorks Inc (SUNWQ)

[buckylaw06]

Here's the bad news in the patent application I mentioned earlier to Nome. None of this is "new" news, but I've never seen it discussed on here. First of all, to find it, you go to the link I provided earlier, which was provided from SLTD's press release on the international patent application publication. Then, you select the "documents" tab. Then select "International Search Report." Alternatively, that document is directly linked from here: http://patentscope.wipo.int/search/docservicepdf_pct/id00000022157504.pdf
So, from my understanding, the patent office has a person knowledgeable in the field conduct a search of other patent filings to see if the proposed invention (SLTD's 3D cell) is truly novel. In the international search report, that person then provides a citation to all of the relevant documents he/she found. Additionally, they categorize each of the relevant documents, to explain its importance. I'll start with the good news. The investigator found 5 relevant documents, but 4 of them were deemed not very relevant. Bad news is that the other one is a category "X" document, which, as far as I can tell, is the worst possible category. It means "the claimed invention cannot be considered novel or cannot be considered to involve an inventive step...." Since they provide the citation, you can look that document up, its a U.S. patent filing from June 2003. However, you probably need to be an engineer or patent attorney to figure out how bad it is or isn't for SLTD. I looked it over about a week ago, and I can tell you, they do discuss a three-dimensional solar cell (they call it a solar battery) that is supposed to reflect less light away, and they have a picture with peaks and valleys that is vaguely similar to SLTD's microscopic photo. However, their version is not all uniform like SLTD's, its more irregular/sloppy looking.
Disclosure: I'm not an expert on any of this,it's just my research and opinions.
I'd love to hear what anyone else thinks after they've had a chance to compare the two.