Intellectual Property

Patents have been granted in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand.

Our granted patents protect the OPAL Process, compositions created by the application of the OPAL Process (including OPAL A) and the therapeutic and cosmetic uses of those compositions.

We have strong patent protection against competitor products made from the alkalisation of the fruit of Carica papaya, our patent applications having undergone rigorous examination and overcome many objections by patent offices in the United States, Europe and Japan.  In Japan, we were successful in an appeal to a 3-person Board, from a final rejection, which is a rare occurrence.

There is a voluminous literature and thousands of patents for natural therapeutic and cosmetic products and their uses, making this field extremely crowded.  Despite this, we have been able to obtain patents in China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand over compositions derived from all fruits and vegetables that have been alkalised.  Ongoing prosecutions of claims for fruits and vegetables other than Carica papaya is in progress in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Future Patents

Our clinical data and scientific study results have shown that OPAL A has several distinct therapeutic and cosmetic properties.  This data further suggests that ongoing rigorous research into the alkalisation of fruits and vegetables undertaken to understand the science behind this invention will lead to the formulation of improved OPAL products and give rise to future patents.

Significantly, potentially new patentable material has already been created by the scientific work undertaken on Carica papaya.  A new patent application is about to be filed in Europe.