Proprietary protection for the Company's products, technology and process is important to its competitive position.

• To date, the Company has received three patents from the United States Patent Office (5,565,366; 5,231,035 and 5,827,749.)
• Other patents have been granted through the PCT (WO 92/05440,) European Patent convention (EP 0 556 202 B1) and in Japan (516757/91.)
• Patents are in the national phase of prosecution in many PCT-participating countries. Additional proprietary technology consists of eleven different inventions.
• The Company intends to file additional patent applications, where appropriate, relating to new products, technologies and their use in the US, European and Asian markets.