artificial sphincter using sma technology

A while back we had some fun thinking up medical and other applications for SMA technology. I'm not sure if anyone has picked this up before (probably). The artifical sphincter:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-79150412.html

Here's hoping TZL is, too, actively targeting this market. Lord knows, the sp has given me the sh*ts recently.

Anyway, that's something of a segue to an actual question.

SMA actuators seem to be getting developed by more and more companies. Mostly backyard operators, sure (one was posted recently) but some like Miga and Tini and so on who look like having viable products not too far removed from TeeZee's. Tini, for example, claims to have already manufactured and delivered over 1000 release mechanisms with a "perfect On-Orbit track record" in aviation/space applications with the SMA benefits we see in TZL's products.

One of the big 'sells' TZL makes is that it has strict IP protection of its disruptive technology.

My question is - how tight can that IP be, given that a few other SMA actuator firms seem to be operating? Most of the benefits seem to be similar, custom software applications aside.

A follow up q - if the IP protection is, in fact, narrow and any man and his dog can go off and make SMA actuators, are all these interminable delays on the road to NASDAQ eroding whatever first mover advantage TZL might have had?

Now, back to my robo-sphincter.