Before the opening bell, Laguna Blends, Inc. (OTC: LAGBF) gave investors some insight into the strong performance of its network of independent affiliates since commencement of operations on March 7, 2016. During the 11-week period ended May 31, the company’s existing network of affiliates in the United States and Canada accounted for $105,000 in unaudited sales, according to this morning’s news release, highlighting an impressive reaction to Laguna’s affiliate business opportunity, as well as its innovative, hemp-based products. Moving forward, the company will look to build on this progress, capitalizing on the rapid expansion of its affiliate network, which surpassed 700 members in April of this year.

“Laguna’s first eleven weeks of pre-launch shows a great deal of promise in respect to Laguna Blends’ long term business potential,” Ray Grimm Jr., president of Laguna Blends, stated in this morning’s news release. “Laguna has exceeded its internal sales goals. This indicates that Laguna is on track with its long term sales growth strategy.”

The quality and marketability of Laguna’s initial products will play a key role in the company’s success throughout the balance of the year and beyond. With a focus on the nutritional benefits derived from hemp, Laguna’s first products to market include Caffe and Pro369. Caffe is an instant hot coffee beverage that’s infused with two grams of whey and hemp protein in every serving. Pro369 is a single serving, water soluble hemp protein that comes in four delicious flavors and can be mixed with water, milk, smoothies and a number of other beverages. Laguna’s management team is confident in the marketability of these offerings, as explained by Grimm.

“[T]here were a lot of product re-orders from March to May from the existing affiliates which is very encouraging,” he stated, “Seeing a high re-order rate further indicates Affiliates and customers are having a positive product experience and that there is a strong demand for the Laguna products.”

Laguna’s future growth will be led by a seasoned management team with decades of experience in the direct sales space. In May, the company strengthened its management team through the appointment of Ray Grimm Jr. to the position of president. Grimm brings more than a quarter century of experience building some of the most successful top nutritional weight loss companies in direct sales history. In total, he’s played a role in building three such companies that exceeded $50 million in sales within their first five years, as well as founding one of the fastest growing weight loss brands ever developed, which produced $10 million in sales during its first year.

For more information, visit www.lagunablends.com

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A patent is essentially a government license that gives certain rights to the patent holder, excluding others from making, using, or selling a particular product or invention without permission. According to WIPO’s 2015 World Intellectual Property Indicators Report, there have been more than 2.7 million patent filings worldwide since 2013 and this number has grown significantly in recent years. The top three offices in the world have been in China, the U.S., and Japan. According to the report, the leading technology fields are computer technology, electrical machinery, measurement, and digital communication, with medical technology not far behind.

International Stem Cell Corporation (OTCQB: ISCO) is a publicly traded biotechnology company that promises to advance the field of regenerative medicine by addressing the problem of immune-rejection. Most recently, the company has focused its efforts on using unfertilized human eggs to create parthenogenetic stem cells to treat severe diseases of the eyes and nervous system, including diseases such as Parkinson’s. The company is careful to protect its associated intellectual property.

International Stem Cell Corporation protects its technology worldwide by filing and holding patent applications for its more specific stem cell lines, methods of production, and various research methods. So far, ISCO has 16 issued patents and 91 pending patents across 15 patent families, as well as a licensed portfolio of 25 patents or patents applications across eight patent families related to its skin care products. Most of International Stem Cell Corp.’s patents are filed internationally, covering the U.S., Canada, and a wide range of other industrialized countries.

The company’s technology strengths are backed up by a carefully chosen team of managers and scientists. ISCO’s directors, executive managers, and scientific advisors have been selected to benefit the company’s business and science related operations. Each person is skilled in particular aspects of corporate management or biotechnology, with executive managers specializing in systems analysis, strategic planning and corporate management, as well as financial management, accounting, medical genetics, embryology, and stem cell biology. This level of combined experience enables ISCO to function positively in every aspect of its business.

For more information, visit www.internationalstemcell.com

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Intellicheck Mobilisa, Inc. (NYSE MKT: IDN) serves dozens of Fortune 500 companies with innovative, proprietary technology that enables its customers to enhance the awareness and safety of their facilities and people, improve customer service and increase operational efficiencies. Headquartered in Jericho, New York, Intellicheck currently leverages an IP portfolio including more than 20 patents to offer threat identification, identity authentication, verification and validation systems to a diverse set of markets, including retail, hospitality, law enforcement, defense and transportation. In recent months, the company has remained at the forefront of the security market through a consistent dedication to innovation. In May, Intellicheck announced the release of its latest product, Retail ID Mobile™.

Retail ID Mobile is a groundbreaking mobile platform that provides retailers with the capability to prevent fraudulent retail transactions while simultaneously delivering a warmer, more personal customer experience without the need to integrate with existing point-of-sale infrastructure. Following the launch of the platform, Intellicheck announced that it will be installing Retail ID Mobile at two prestigious department store chains, offering as much as $450,000 in annual licensing revenues and bolstering Intellicheck’s financial performance.

“We have been working closely with our clients to define and develop new approaches to fraud prevention that also support a warmer, more personal customer experience,” Dr. William Roof, chief executive officer of Intellicheck, stated in a news release. “Many retailers have begun deploying their retail IT systems on mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones. We identified a clear path to supporting their new mobility requirements, while, at the same time, supporting our clients’ desire to avoid the cost and time associated with retail point-of-sale systems integration.”

Earlier this week, Intellicheck reaffirmed its commitment to innovation when it announced reception of a new patent that’s expected to have far-reaching impact across both government and commercial markets. The newest addition to the company’s IP portfolio governs the two-factor fingerprint biometric identity process, which authenticates an identity card with embedded fingerprint biometric information and the live biometric information of a person presenting the card. In addition to strengthening Intellicheck’s position in the rapidly expanding $25 billion fingerprint biometric marketplace, the new patent has sweeping implications, because it covers the process at the center of the leading biometric fingerprint technology that assures compliance with The Federal Information Processing Standard, which is the underlying standard for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, the Personal Identity Verification Credential and several other U.S. government identification methods.

“We believe the issuance of this patent firmly positions us in a leading role in the fingerprint biometric identity authentication industry,” added Roof.

Following the introduction of Retail ID Mobile and the reception of its newest patent, Intellicheck is in a strong strategic position to achieve profitability in the coming months while supporting sustainable long-term growth. Leaning on a sizable IP portfolio and a growing presence in key markets across the country, the company’s management team is confident in Intellicheck’s ability to deliver industry-leading products and services that will “enhance market appeal and drive shareholder value.”

For more information, visit www.intellicheck.com

Combining luxury with the comforts of home has now been made easier with NextTrip.com, Monaker Group’s (OTCQB: MKGI) real-time booking engine. Monaker Group is a travel company that is driven by technology and operates through its flagship booking platform, NextTrip.com. MKGI has more than 60 years of experience in the travel and leisure industry. It is made up of a number of companies serving the travel industry, including Maupintour, NextTrip, and Voyage.tv. Monaker offers a range of services including home rentals, flight bookings, cruises, car rentals, and much more. All of these are combined into one platform in order for customers to have ease of access and full power of choice when organizing their vacations.

What if a guest wants to have their own personal space by booking a home with the added luxury of resort facilities? NextTrip Resorts offers just that. Aside from being a platform to book a hotel and a car rental, NextTrip.com also has a large inventory of hundreds of thousands of discounted resort residences. This means that, in addition to having a nice holiday lined up, customers are able to experience a level of luxury with resort amenities and staff. The site offers the opportunity to rent a full residence at a luxury resort while being able to make the most of the comfort and space of a home.

The service is broken down into three steps. First, customers are able to use the NextTrip Resorts search engine to go through the inventory of resorts. Once the resort is chosen, the customer is then given the chance to click the “book it now” button or the “make an offer” button. This extra service means customers can get special discounts on luxury accommodation. Once the owner has agreed to a price, customers are then given full roam of a condo with the luxury of onsite resort staff and facilities.

The NextTrip Resorts platform is an easy-to-use site that offers guests the chance to tailor their holidays according to their unique needs. Whether it is a family holiday, a romantic getaway, or just the luxury of cooking your own meals and having your own space, the choices are endless. Aside from the ease of use, the system also offers the chance to book discount air fares and car rentals. From the site, guests are able to book excursions, tours, and activities in advance of their trips.

For more information, visit www.monakergroup.com

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According to Nutraceuticals World, since 2015, the two biggest growth opportunities in the health market are the surge of plant-based foods and the resurgence of dairy as a whole food. People worldwide have started rejecting animal-based foods, in particular lactose-based products. This current trend has allowed the functional food and beverage industry to grow significantly. Between 2009 and 2013, the market for functional drinks in the U.S. grew from $19 billion to $27 billion. This number is forecast to grow to $38.5 billion by 2017.

Laguna Blends, Inc. (OTC: LAGBF) is a multi-level marketing company with an initial focus on functional beverages that contain hemp and other efficacious ingredients. The company now has two products: Caffe and Pro369. LAGBF does not manufacture its own products. The company produces white label products under the brand name Laguna Blends. Laguna Blends, Inc. is partnered with a Vancouver-based biotechnology company called Naturally Splendid. This allows the company to jointly develop and market products that are of high quality and are approved by Health Canada. LAGBF believes that network marketing is the best way to distribute hemp-based products because it gives a higher level of education of the products it offers, and the company operates in a cloud-based environment to allow its affiliates more freedom.

Laguna Blends, Inc.’s CEO, Stuart Gray, saw a gap in the market. He decided there was a better way of selling hemp-based functional drinks. While protein drinks only accounted for 1.4 percent of the functional beverages industry in 2015, it was also the segment with the strongest growth. By 2020, Euromonitor International estimates the market for sports nutrition and sports drinks to reach $20 billion. This growth is due to the fact that people worldwide have growing concerns for their health and find these products more convenient. The days in which hydration was enough are gone; people now want functional hydration. Each of the company’s current products offers unique selling points and can be added to a person’s daily routine.

For more information, visit www.lagunablends.com

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Net Element, Inc. (NASDAQ: NETE) is a global, technology-driven company specializing in mobile payments and value-added transactional services. In the U.S., the company’s primary focus lies on increasing its transactional revenue through the introduction of innovative, payments-as-a-service transactional platforms to small to medium enterprise (SME) clients. Net Element’s flagship platform, Aptito, accomplishes this goal by way of a proprietary, cloud-based point of sale solution designed to deliver efficient operation in an affordable and scalable package.

Initially, Aptito was targeted exclusively at the restaurant industry, offering innovative features such as digital menus and mobile ordering designed to promote faster service while minimizing mistakes. In March, the company expanded upon this solution when it released Aptito for retail stores. Currently available on Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iOS platform, Aptito Retail Point of Sale allows retailers to improve in-store performance by seamlessly tracking purchasing habits, managing inventory and minimizing transaction times. The platform can also be integrated with a number of peripherals, such as a fully integrated cash drawer, thermal receipt printer, barcode scanner, barcode printer and EMV-compliant point of sale acceptance terminal, based on the unique needs of individual retailers.

By expanding its presence in the point of sale software industry, Net Element is well-positioned to capitalize on forecast market growth related to the proliferation of multi-channel shopping and updating of legacy systems. Despite the continued emergence of ecommerce, retail spending continues to dominate the U.S. buying landscape. According to a report by Javelin Strategy & Research (http://dtn.fm/7Bd6c), retail point of sale purchases are expected to reach $4.2 trillion by 2018. Alongside this growth, demand for mobile point of sale platforms is expected to skyrocket. According to 451 Research (http://dtn.fm/J94ge), the global installed base of mobile point of sale devices is on course to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 32 percent from 2015 to 2019, expanding from 13 million devices to just over 54 million.

“In a highly competitive retail industry, we recognize that now more than ever, smaller retailers must focus on providing their customers with the best in-store experience to improve retention, attract new customers and sustain repeat spending,” Oleg Firer, chief executive officer of Net Element, stated in a news release. “Aptito Retail POS solution gives retailers insight into their customer’s behavior and streamlines payment processes, allowing merchants to focus on their business.”

On the international stage, Net Element is focused on delivering its omni-channel payments platform to emerging markets with diverse banking, regulatory and demographic conditions. In March, the company launched Aptito in Russia in an effort to capitalize on the country’s forecast growth of information technologies. According to a joint study by the Association of Computer Equipment Companies and McKinsey, growth of information technologies in the Russian market is expected to be roughly 25 percent per year, climbing to $154 billion by 2020. This move continues to highlight Net Element’s commitment to establishing itself on the global stage, as detailed by the company’s CEO.

“We are entering an underserved point of sale software market, that has tremendous opportunity,” added Firer. “Approximately 39% of our revenues came from outside of the United States, up from 9% a year ago, and this trend continues to grow.”

Earlier this week, Net Element provided another update on its growth in the Russian Federation when it announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Digital Provider, enabled mobile payments acceptance for Wi-Fi Internet access at one of the busiest airports in the country. Another of the company’s subsidiaries, PayOnline, was ranked as a top five payment acceptance company in the 2016 Internet Acquiring Rank report of Russian analytics agency Markswebb Rank & Report. According to Markswebb, roughly 80 percent of Russian internet users between the ages of 19 and 64 (about 43.8 million people) make at least one online purchase per month, further highlighting the significant opportunities for growth currently being pursued by Net Element and its subsidiaries.

In the first quarter of 2016, Net Element’s commitment to growth and innovation helped it achieve strong financial performance in a number of markets. The company’s net revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2016, were over $11.2 million, up 103 percent from the comparable period of the previous year. With the launch of Aptito for retail stores and entry into the Russian market, Net Element is strategically positioned to build on these results throughout the balance of 2016.

Net Element is led by an experienced management team offering a unique blend of leadership, vision and creativity. The company’s CEO, Oleg Firer, is responsible for its overall vision and strategy. Firer has considerable experience in the payments space, having previously served as executive chairman of current Net Element subsidiary Unified Payments. Under Firer’s lead, Unified Payments recorded revenue growth of 23,646 percent over a three year period, earning it the title of ‘Fastest Growing Company’ from Inc. Magazine in 2012. Prior to his time with Unified Payments, Firer held numerous senior executive positions in private equity, payment processing, wireless communications and technology firms.

For more information, visit www.netelement.com

Content Checked Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: CNCK) is the company behind a revolutionary marketplace for people with dietary restrictions. The company’s suite of mobile apps, including ContentChecked, MigraineChecked and SugarChecked, gives consumers the ability to determine if particular grocery items fit into their specific dietary requirements. With a database covering more than 70 percent of conventional U.S. food products, Content Checked is directly targeting the growing food allergy and intolerances market, which was valued at roughly $13 billion in 2015. However, the recent performance of the grocery industry as a whole has been equally noteworthy for the technology company.

In a report released last month by research firm CB Insights (http://dtn.fm/J3yIt), food and grocery was highlighted as a fruitful sector for on-demand startups. When studying these startups and their ability to attract investors, researchers found that food and grocery startups enjoyed the highest aggregate deal activity over the past five years. Led by sizable funding rounds from food delivery startups DoorDash and Swiggy, food and grocery successfully outperformed high-profile segments such as ride-hailing and logistics in terms of investor attention.

For Content Checked, the strong performance of food and grocery in the investor space is promising. Earlier this year, the company engaged PCG Advisory Group, a leading capital markets advisory firm, to serve as an advisor to its investor relations, social media and public relations strategies. Content Checked also engaged Bonwick Capital Partners LLC, a full-service broker dealer, to aid in the execution of its financial, corporate, and mergers & acquisition strategies.

These partnerships are expected to play a key role in the company’s efforts to increase shareholder value ahead of a planned uplisting to the NASDAQ Stock Market later this fiscal year. Content Checked has already commenced preparation for this uplisting in recent weeks, perhaps most notably with the election of Dr. Göran Rune Skog, an accomplished physician with more than 35 years of experience in the field of medicine, as an independent addition to its board of directors.

“Content Checked’s intriguing formula of fusing cutting-edge technology with nutrition provides a compelling story to present to our investor community and network,” Jeff Ramson, Founder and CEO of PCG Advisory Group, stated in a news release. “Their recent positive financial developments, partnerships and product milestones, illustrate a unique growth opportunity in an extremely relevant market with very optimistic long-term prospects.”

To view the company’s full financials, visit the following link: http://dtn.fm/sIJ7M

For more information, visit www.contentchecked.com

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Momentous Entertainment Group (OTC: MMEG) is in the right place at the right time, according to a recent demographic study (http://dtn.fm/rnA5D) by the well-respected Pew Research Center. The organization’s analysts opine that ‘over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group’ in the world. The number of Christians in the world will climb from 2.17 billion in 2010 to 2.92 billion in 2050. The percentage will remain stable at 31.4 percent. This pattern will be mirrored on the domestic front.

The United States will remain home to more Christians than any other country in the world. A large majority of Americans – roughly seven-in-ten – continue to identify with some branch of the Christian faith. In 2014, Catholics comprised 20.8 percent of the U.S. However, the largest Christian denomination was Protestantism. Some 46.6 percent of the U.S. population identified as Protestant, and about 55 percent of Protestants identified as Evangelicals, meaning that Evangelicals comprise about one-quarter of the U.S. population. Now, Momentous Entertainment Group is preaching to this choir with its faith-based, family-oriented offerings.

It is a choir that spends. An article (http://dtn.fm/V3Qh2) in Christianity Today states that ‘The Christian Booksellers Association, representing 1,700 Christian stores, sells $4.63 billion worth of merchandise a year. And that doesn’t count retailers like Amazon and Wal-Mart. Some estimate the total evangelical market to be over $7 billion a year.’ It is a choir that wants to sing and be sung to. The success of movies like The Passion of the Christ and the Chronicles of Narnia, inspired by Christian ethos and gospel, show quite dramatically the hunger for content that elevates the spirit like Momentous’ pious projects.

One such product from Momentous is The Greatest Story Every Sung, a compilation of 34 songs on compact disc. The Greatest Story Every Sung is ‘a celebration of the life of Jesus’, an oratorio of song with narrative by Stephen Baldwin taking the place of recitative. Mr. Baldwin is the well-known actor and the youngest of the Baldwin brothers, all of whom have become film actors. The pieces included in the album are based on a live presentation in December of 2012, produced by Kurt Neubauer and Howard Harris. Howard Harris is professor of music and director of Jazz Studies at Texas Southern University. Kurt Neubauer is founder and CEO of Momentous. The production was inspired by Roger Clark, who had been fighting Stage 4 Colon Cancer for the past 5+ years and was actually undergoing chemotherapy during the recording sessions.

Suzanne Olmon, another of the voices heard on The Greatest Story Every Sung, performs in Momentous’ first music video. The video, a performance of I Believe, was released in May 2016. Suzanne sings soprano and is the Music Director at the Church of Faith United Methodist Church in Richmond, Texas.

Momentous has also released, in November 2015, another faith-based production called Tim Storey presents Daily Reminders from Scripture, which is a double CD album reciting bible passages on the themes of hope, love, peace and joy. Tim Storey is a pastor and motivation life coach to many of the top names in the entertainment industry, including Oprah Winfrey.

Momentous Entertainment Group is a media company that plans to operate within four segments of the media industry. These segments include content, distribution, live events and direct marketing. Currently, the content segment has a recording division and a film and television division. Subsequent to The Greatest Story Every Sung, the recording division commenced work on a second album project, titled Crossing – From Here to Eternity, which will be aimed at the adult contemporary listening market.

The company’s film and television division currently has signed talent contracts with Bobby Dale Earnhardt, Dennis Gile, and the ARCA Truck Series. The distribution segment will focus on the distribution of MMEG content through wholly-owned cable, radio, television, and streaming distribution outlets. The live entertainment segment will focus on highlighting MMEG contracted artists, their content and the creation of additional content. The marketing segment will directly sell MMEG products to consumers.

For more information, visit www.momentousent.com

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With the $130 million (a fraction of the $2 billion sought) settlement between News Corporation’s (NASDAQ: NWS) Move.com and juggernaut real estate/home-related info marketplace developer Zillow (NASDAQ:ZG) (NASDAQ:Z) fresh in the air, investors should be asking themselves how to carve off a slice of the once-again hot real estate sector. REITs have been crushing it since 2000, positing 12 percent returns on average, according to JPM (NYSE: JPM) Asset Management. Zillow, which bought up real estate search engine company Trulia (NYSE: TRLA) recently and which has an exclusive partnership with Yahoo! Real Estate (NASDAQ: YHOO), creating the biggest real estate ad network on the net – was more than happy to pay the still-sizeable sum, and get back to capitalizing on continued sector momentum.

A recent report by IBISWorld (http://dtn.fm/1n1Rx) on the real estate sales and brokerage market forecasts solid revenue growth over the next five years, extending the roughly $122 billion or so in current annual revenues, and enjoying growth that is in-line with the 5.6 percent growth seen over the preceding five years. Residential currently makes up over two-thirds of the space, and it is worth noting that this highly-fragmented sector, characterized by low market share concentration, sees less than one-tenth of overall revenue go to the top four companies, which include residential-focused Realogy (NYSE: RLGY), and commercial-focused CBRE Group (NYSE: CBG).

Many analysts are already saying the Fed will not raise interest rates this month (http://dtn.fm/fB4ml), given the flagging economic data. Even if rates come up, the consensus is that only cosmetic increases are likely to take place. Another key trend here for the real estate sector is that agencies are stacking more in-house brokers on their bench in order to tighten up throughput, ensure deals close fast, and clients get attractive rates. It is also more and more essential to hand-hold through the loan qualification, as difficulty in obtaining mortgage financing ranked number one in the 2016 National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) member profile (http://dtn.fm/o8Fss), meaning really talented and motivated agents/brokers are more important than ever. The NAR data also indicates that 55 percent of realtors are affiliated with an independent company, further highlighting sector fragmentation, and suggesting how dispersed the underlying fabric of movers and shakers is.

Also among the NAR report is an important distinction about the use of social media among members, showing that usage was up five percent, year-over-year, to 70 percent. This single trend alone expresses how important it has become to have a public-facing presence and why Zillow would gladly burn-off $130 million in order to get back to capturing an ever larger chunk of the $12 billion plus annual ad spend from real estate agent listings (http://dtn.fm/K2v0B). Consumers these days have mobile phones with core clocks tens of thousands of times faster than the ones we used to put a man on the moon, and those phones can execute instructions 12 million times faster as well. These people have no time or patience for traditional brick and mortar real estate offices. As a natural result, real estate pros are fleeing the dinosaur model in droves.

With a market cap around $92 million, you might not immediately think of holding company eXp World Holdings (OTCQB: EXPI) as a looming sector disruptor with supernova potential. But a closer look at how this company’s real estate brokerage division, eXp Realty, has streamlined together a virtual collaboration and socialization environment, powered by rich training assets and designed from the ground up as the ultimate agent and broker-empowering cloud office platform – and investors are likely to do a double take. The company’s Agent-Owned Cloud Brokerage™ is not only readily available around-the-clock, it is able to drive new levels of user immersion by providing a 3D environment capability, made possible via a partnership with social virtual platform developer VirBELA. This shared ownership model is extremely attractive to agents and so it is little surprise that eXp Realty saw 84 percent agent growth last year.

A big reduction in agent overhead and the alleviation of cumbersome, antiquated brick and mortar-centric methodologies, combined with huge incentive for agents to bolster troop overall strength in the form of an aggressive revenue sharing program that rewards agents a percentage of gross commissions earned by joining colleagues, create a perfect storm of momentum, the force of which is evident in the company’s record revenue growth for Q1, reported in mid-May. EXPI saw a more than doubling of revenues year-over-year in Q1 to just over $7.12 million for the quarter. And let’s remember, this is after record financial results in 2015, where a 71 percent year-over-year increase in revenues brought the yearly total to $22.87 million.

The future is so bright that EXPI even doubled-down last year in a big way, pushing out into the mortgage origination segment through its 90.5 percent-owned First Cloud Mortgage, which is currently licensed in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas.

For more information, visit the company’s website at http://investors.exprealty.com

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Earlier today, OurPet’s Company (OTCQX: OPCO) announced the general licensing of its U.S. patent relating to the application of a polymer material to the bottom of stainless steel bowls in order to minimize sliding and noise while pets are feeding. Patent US 8,973,529 B1 was originally issued on March 10, 2015. OPCO’s innovative design, which is featured in a wide selection of products under its Durapet® brand, has proven very popular in the pet industry, with a multitude of domestic and foreign competitors infringing upon the design and necessitating legal action.

To date, OPCO has successfully defended its patents against domestic and foreign competitors six times. Most recently, in March, the company reached a favorable settlement agreement with one such competitor over the sale of stainless steel, rubber-bottomed bowls that, according to the filed lawsuit, ‘infringed OurPet’s ‘529 utility patent’. However, pursuing this litigation has proven to be time-consuming, expensive and, in many cases, disruptive to ongoing operations. OPCO’s decision to license its intellectual property related to Patent 8,973,529 B1 is expected to combat these negative effects while expanding the usage of the technology in the pet industry and enhancing OPCO’s overall profitability moving forward.

“In the future, OurPet’s will continue to protect the value of our innovative product lines, and specifically our intellectual property portfolio, which currently includes 160 patents issued or pending,” Dr. Steven Tsengas, president and chief executive officer of OPCO, stated in a news release following the company’s most recent settlement.

As of this morning’s announcement, the company had already agreed to licensing deals with six manufacturers regarding its polymer bonding stainless steel technology, and it is in ongoing negotiations with two more. It’s important to note that OPCO’s decision to license Patent US 8,973,529 B1 does not extend to the remainder of its extensive intellectual property portfolio, which includes a library of patents accounting for approximately 75 percent of the company’s revenues. Other utility patents, including one issued in October 2012 that covers the application of a polymer to the bottom and slightly up the side of a stainless steel bowl, will not be licensed at this time.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.ourpets.com

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