Occuity has some great news on our recently filed patents. We’ve now heard that 3 of our new patents have received a “notice of intent to grant” from the UK Patent Office. This means that it is just a matter of a month or so before they are formally approved and we will have a total of 12 granted patents in our portfolio, and three further patents pending.
The three new granted patents are:
TD-LCI – This was filed to protect the original combined low-coherence interferometry (LCI) / confocal process for glucose measurement. But the claims used are very broad and cover any optical measurement system using a combination of confocal and low-coherence interferometry.
FD-LCI – This covers an enhancement to the basic combined LCI / confocal technology. The reason for this is that there are two forms of low coherence interferometry – time domain and Fourier domain. We currently use time domain in the G1 and AX1 but this patent gives us the option to move to Fourier domain in the future.
ALM – This axial length patent specifically protects the methodology we use in the AX1. It builds on the TD-LCI patent above in that it covers the combined LCI / confocal technology but adds that the system measures axial length by using confocal to determine the location of one surface and LCI to determine the location of another.
These are all of course important patents for us, but the ALM one is particularly pertinent in the short term as the enhances the protection we have around the AX1. In total we now have 5 patents protecting the AX1 (and one pending):
Real time data analysis to enable the meter to only accept good data
Trigger signal to give highly accurate position information
Bi-directional source receiver module enabling the compact nature of the meter
Linear resonant scanner to enable fast, long-range scanning
The technology enabling the AX1 axiometer measurement process (this new grant)
A new alignment methodology that doesn’t interfere with the measurement channel (pending)
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