"Regarding patent expiry, I remember reading some time ago that...

"Regarding patent expiry, I remember reading some time ago that due to the court case and legal proceedings that were squashed against the Graham patent that we should be able to get extensions. Not being familiar with the patent process, how difficult will it be for us?? Obviously pretty crucial we can get extensions to our core patents...."

I have posted on this previously but for those who are new I'll repeat the essence of that post. Patent extension can be granted for a number of reasons. The US Patents Office has in the past been particularly sympathetic to extension requests where actions taken by them or third parties have materially impacted on the application of the patent. The long review caused by Nucleonics is very likely to fall into this category.

As best as I can tell from reading USPTO documents, the earliest that a company can apply for a patent extension is two years before the patent expiry date. I guess this potentially saves them from considering multiple requests for extensions over the life of the patent. For CSIRO/BLT (from memory) I think this is April 2016.

So, while a patent extension is likely to be granted, we won't know for sure until the application is considered and that would be lodged until 2016 at the earliest. The best that BLT can do is to signal its intention to apply and to give such a signal would only be necessary if there was a serious investor ready to buy in. Right now any such consideration and preparatory work would be a complete distraction.

I hope this answers your question Billja.