October 15, 2003 (Laramie, Wyoming) - Nanomaterials Discovery Corp. (NDC) announced today that it has received a notice of allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for NDC's patent application "Method of Using an Array of Electrodes for High-Throughput Development and Testing of Materials." The 28 allowed claims relate to using an array of electrodes to discover new nanostructured materials for a wide range of applications including fuel cells, batteries, and displays.
"We've spent more than six years developing this technology," said Professor Daniel Buttry, a principal of NDC and the company's research investigator at the University of Wyoming. "We're pleased that our innovations have been recognized as inventions by the patent office."
"One of the reasons we chose to work with NDC was to augment our technology platform and intellectual property with their capabilities and intellectual property," said Dr. Amit Kumar, President and CEO of CombiMatrix. "With the allowance of this patent we have strengthened as well as enabled this collaboration."
NDC has a long-standing research partnership with the University of Wyoming that has focused on using electrode arrays to search for new catalysts for fuel cells, new cathode materials for rechargeable lithium batteries, and new phosphors for flat panel displays. The partnership has received substantial funding from the Office of Naval Research, Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation.
About Nanomaterials Discovery Corporation
NDC is a startup company that combines the power of nanotechnology with the high-throughput preparation and screening capabilities of combinatorial chemistry to develop and refine new nanostructured materials. Founded in 2003, NDC acquired mature technologies from The Blue Sky Group Inc. of Laramie, Wyoming, and Combimatrix of Washington. More information is available on the web at www.nanomaterialsdiscovery.com.
About Acacia Research Corporation
Acacia Research Corporation comprises two operating groups, Acacia Technologies Group and CombiMatrix Group.
The CombiMatrix group is developing a platform technology to rapidly produce customizable active biochips, which are semiconductor-based tools for use in identifying and determining the roles of genes, gene mutations and proteins. CombiMatrix's technology has a wide range of applications including DNA synthesis/diagnostics, drug discovery, and immunochemical detection.
The Acacia Technologies group licenses its DMT and V-Chip technologies to media and electronics companies. The DMT technology covers the transmission and receipt of digital audio and digital video content, commonly known as audio on-demand, video on-demand, and audio/video streaming, and is supported by 5 U.S. and 17 international patents.
Acacia Research-Acacia Technologies (Nasdaq: ACTG) and Acacia Research-CombiMatrix (Nasdaq:CBMX) are both classes of common stock issued by Acacia Research Corporation and are intended to reflect the performance of the respective operating groups and are not issued by the operating groups.
Information about Acacia Research Corporation and the Acacia Technologies group is available at www.acaciaresearch.com. Information about the CombiMatrix group is available at www.combimatrix.com.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon our current expectations and speak only as of the date hereof. Our actual results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements as a result of various factors and uncertainties, including the recent economic slowdown affecting technology companies, our ability to successfully develop products, rapid technological change in our markets, changes in demand for our future products, legislative, regulatory and competitive developments and general economic conditions. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, recent and forthcoming Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Forms 8-K and 8-K/A, and other SEC filings discuss some of the important risk factors that may affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.
