Zikon was established in 1996 by Remy Cromer and Zbig Bryning, a chemist and physicist with extensive industry and research experience in emulsion and display technologies. The company was established to further explore electrophoretic display research following the disbandment of Exxon’s EPID flexible display unit in 1996. Shortly after the company was incorporated it was granted a broad US patent that covers both REED Ink and its use in finished display units. The company has positioned its product around this patent, and currently awaits approval on several other patents that have recently been filed. In addition the technology has been validated by the University of Manchester, UK in 2005. Zikon currently offers a working prototype that was produced with limited resources. The prototype’s proprietary technology is driven by the properties of self-assembled nano-droplets dispersed in a non-polar and non-conductive liquid. Today’s prototype is comparable to those created by competing hundred-million-dollar companies that used much less effective technologies but were afforded ready access to facilities, capital, and personnel. Today’s competing electrophoretic technologies require exorbitant amounts of energy to function properly and are unable to effectively support video-speed displays. Furthermore, they are not compatible with the existing LCD manufacturing technology.