I assume you are referring to the "reduced to practice" requirement for a patent. This is why they needed the labs at coopervision; to reduce some of their ideas to practice so they could patent them.
That said, the word "prototype" is a bit strong.
Prototype "a first, typical or preliminary model of something"
What I have seen from EPGL is what I would call a test pattern. Perhaps other companies would use different language for this as I don't think there is a standard. They embedded an interconnect into a contact lens (not the first to do this BTW), and were able to get patents on some of the details. This isn't a consumable product yet, but simply a way to test out some of the structures and process required to finally develop a consumer product.
Note that there are ways other than the EPGL way to accomplish this, which is probably one of the reasons the patents were initially rejected.
A company who finally develops a prototype smart contact lens does not have to use the EPGL patents, as the other ways will work just fine.
Alan
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