Provisional patents covering the MFC-related inventions of Peter Girguis and Peter Kauffman were filed by Harvard in September 2006 and May 2007. In September 2007 these patents were converted to utility patents and documents were filed with the PTC to protect international rights. Living Power is negotiating an exclusive license to the MFC patents from Harvard’s Office of Technology Development. The innovations of Girguis and Kauffman are critical to the development of commercially-viable microbial fuel cells.