VANCOUVER, B.C. – Mission Ready Services Inc. (TSX-V: MRS) – Mission Ready Services Inc. (“Mission Ready” or “MRSI”) is pleased to announce that it has signed an exclusive Patent License Agreement (the “Agreement”) with the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (“NSRDEC”), through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Protect the Force Inc. (“Protect the Force” or the “Company”). The license terms will provide Protect the Force with exclusive rights to market the Integrated Body Armor Garment (“Next Generation Body Armor”) anywhere outside of the U.S. Federal Government, including local and state law enforcement agencies, as well as internationally to markets such as the Canadian Army and all NATO countries and partners.
Developed over the past 4 years – under a Broad Agency Announcement for the Army Next Generation Body Armor – through a successful joint effort between Protect the Force and NSRDEC, the Integrated Body Armor Garment is a revolutionary breakthrough in soldier protection technology and answers the need for a high-mobility, light-weight Next Generation Body Armor. The Integrated Body Armor Garment is the basis for the Company’s previously announced Ballistic Combat Shirt (“BCS”) and Tactical Police Shirt (“TPS”).
The Integrated Body Armor Garment contains a network of body armor panels that provides protection from ballistic threats while permitting a wide range of motion and providing increased comfort and breathability to the wearer. Mission Ready announced the filing of the patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as well as an international filing under the Patent Cooperation Treaty for the Integrated Body Armor Garment in a news release dated August 12, 2014.
Robert DiLalla, NSRDEC Team Leader for the Infantry Combat Equipment Team in the Warfighter Directorate, was named as an inventor on the patent applications licensed by Protect the Force. Mr. DiLalla worked closely with the Company in their effort to ensure that the Warfighters’ needs were addressed by the Integrated Body Armor Garment. Mr. DiLalla states, “It’s been extremely productive working with Protect the Force over the past few years developing advanced concepts for the next generation of Soldier protection. Clearly, we’re both excited that some of the concepts, such as the ballistic combat shirt, fared well during the Army development test phases for the Soldier Protection System program of record. Our goal from the beginning was to improve Soldier performance while maintaining the same ballistic protection as the current Interceptor Body Armor system. We were able to quantify significant performance increases in laboratory testing, but it was the exceptionally high user acceptance across three development test phases that indicated we had something revolutionary. While our mission here at the NSRDEC is to support the Warfighter I am pleased to know that this technology has application to better protect members of the law enforcement community both domestically and abroad.”
Francisco Martinez, Chief Technical Officer of Mission Ready states, “Considering the emphatically positive feedback we have received from user evaluations in a variety of tactical and combat-related environments, we are excited to receive this exclusive license from the U.S. Army providing a largely uninhibited path for the Company to pursue our sales and marketing efforts on a broad scale with a primary focus on national and international SWAT and Emergency Response Teams.
The Patent: www.google.com/patents/US20150247705
