iep was founded in 1991 as an energy project and technology development company. since 2002, it has focused on the development of its geothermic fuel cell technology. on february 3, 2004, iep received an initial patent on the geothermic fuels cells and on april 13, 2005, iep retained the consulting firm sage geotech to produce technical assessments related to this technology. on march 1, 2006, iep concluded negotiations with battelle memorial institute, the operator of the pacific northwest national laboratory, for development of the geothermic fuel cell prototype and in september 2008, they signed agreements for modeling, analysis, design and engineering to commercialize this technology and related applications. the continuation-in-part application for the geothermic fuel cell process was issued by the united states patent and trademark office on february 27, 2007.