an interesting ditty from EVworld- speculation, but plausible
I didn't realize that almost all NiMH technology was licensed from a single company- not unlike CDMA cellular and Qualcomm.

Note to broker: BUY ECD!!!

http://www.evworld.com/blogs/index.c...=51&blogid=104

And also like Qualcomm, alternative technologies do not profits by monopoly make.

GSM
Umpteen varieties of Li-ion.

You wouldn't be encouraging people to jump into the stock *after* you, I hope.

R2-E2, 2G Prius.
Highway/City/Husband/Wife MPG: 56.5, as of 12/2005, 26K miles

Jac Nasser, Ford President: "We are planning to launch a hybrid version of
this car [P2000] within this year [1998]. We will also make FCEV available in
2004."

??? Qualcomm profited $360M in 02, $2.1B in 05.

All worldwide 3G and all proposed 4G systems are CDMA based- GSM and TDMA/GPRS will be legacy (not gone, just not current technology).

Nowhere was monopoly mentioned. ECD owns the rights to a very useful technology at the present time. Not the only one, but one of the shooting stars of the moment and until LIon comes into its own. They're doing ok, but not setting the world on fire at this point.

Due diligence by all prior to plunking $$ anywhere.

There are too many "tech" companies out there that, following the acquisition of some bright spark's useful research, just sit on the patents while keeping a bench full of lawyers on healthy retainers, waiting to attach their blood-sucking jaws straight into the artery of the first company that wants to commercialise a related technology. This is a big problem today that OFTEN gets in the way of progress...

...and is one reason why Toyota are going with Lithium-ion from 2008.

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ecotech/ecot.htm

ECD has been making and licensing NiMH since 1982, and are all over the map in phase-change memory, Hydrogen power, and solar. This single case looks predatory, but I don't know anything about the company to judge them overall. They do not appear to be, however, just an IP clearinghouse with a legion of attorneys.

I know of the IP hoarders you speak of, being part of the losing end of a battle with one of them in the fiber optics world.

Just saying that they are an...interesting company to look at. Good or bad, their possible actions seem to be impacting we hybriders pretty directly, and they bear watching for now.

That's the kind of story that makes you question at what point you have to say that a technology is for the good of mankind, and as such, the patent should be voided because it's too valuable to the survival of our planet to be hoarded by one single company.