I remember the AGM where questions were asked about partly paid...

I remember the AGM where questions were asked about partly paid shares and I share your views about the company’s response. Firstly there was a shareholder who continually berated you asking how many share you held. Trying to hold management to account in an AGM always results in the questioner being attacked, I can’t understand why there are always people in an AGM who totally support and protect management from being held to account. I once asked a question of Turbot that might have been difficult for him to explain and immediately I asked the question, a female voice (wonder who that could have been) at the back of the room, interjected with a motion that question time be ended. Anyway, instead of answering your question or stopping the interjections, Cuthbertson accused you of making derogatory comments on Hot Copper and Gaston responded to the written questions like a robot. Management have treated shareholders with contempt for years and years, and given the many changes to the plant design, I wonder if they have ever intended the plant to be finished. 

From what I can gather, APG does not hold any current patents. I suggest that you visit the website of IP Australia (www.ipaustralia.gov.au), which is the government’s patent authority. From the homepage click on ‘search Australian patents’, then type “Austpac” into the search and you will see a list of their numerous patent applications. I don’t know why, but for some applications you can view various documents, but not for others. If you click on 2006257708, which is another application for EARS on 5 June 2006, and click on the document ‘Examination Report No. 1’, you will see a letter from the examiner which asks for more information. The examiner says the process is not innovative nor novel, and sites a number of patented processes that do the same thing that EARS does. You will see that APG did not provide any further information, and the application lapsed. 

If instead of clicking the Australian Patents search, you click on “International” and then type “Austpac” you will see the latest application at the top of the list. Clicking on the link takes you to an information page, click on the heading “Documents”. In the third box you will see a document titled “Written Opinion of the International Search Authority”, click to view the document. I am not a Patent Attorney but reading this document says to me that the process, though novel, does not involve anything inventive. Whether this means that the patent application will not succeed is something I don’t know, but it certainly looks doubtful to me. But my view is the opinion of someone who is not expert in the field of patents.