Google Patents visit, 2026-10-04 (Investigator, Step I, run 1)

Site: https://patents.google.com (Chrome). Pages read: the two project applications, the granted CIP, the 2009 PCT "energy carriers" application, an assignee listing, an inventor search, and one later citing patent.

Queries / pages: - patent/US20090092540A1/en (status, family, citations, legal events) - patent/US7793621B2/en (granted CIP) - ?q="energy carriers"&assignee=Realm Industries - patent/WO2010039283A2/en (full description read to [0088]) - ?assignee=Realm Industries&dups=language (21 results) - ?inventor=Stehl&before=priority:20070101&q=water (negative for William Stehl) - patent/WO2023055615A1/en (R2D2 LLC, citing patent)

1. US 2009/0092540 A1 (parent, Appl. 11/973,170) [web: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20090092540A1/en]

• Status: Abandoned. Legal event 2013-09-03: "ABANDONED -- FAILURE TO RESPOND TO AN OFFICE ACTION". So the USPTO issued at least one office action that was not answered. The office action itself is in the USPTO file wrapper (Patent Center), not read this run.
• Assignment recorded 2007-11-09: Stehl, William and Larson, Tyson to Realm Industries, California (reel/frame 020269/0961 and 020271/0251), effective 2007-09-28.
• Cited by (4): US20090090312A1 (Realm, its own CIP); US10300444B2 "Hydro nano-gas reactor" (Hydroatomic Inst/Informationstjanst i Solna AB, priority 2015); WO2023055615A1 "Structurally altered gas molecule produced from water..." (R2D2 LLC, priority 2021); WO2025075620A1 "Application of structurally altered gas molecules for hydration of plants" (H2Plus LLC, priority 2023).
• 41 patent citations (examiner-cited prior art), including US20070012264A1 Holt "Water fuel convertor", US20070021921A1 / US20070021924A1 "Selective resonance of chemical structures" (Searete LLC; Ishikawa), US20060169595A1 Bioionix "Electroionic generation of hydrogen or oxygen", US20070181083A1 Brehon Energy "hydrogen enriched fuel", US20080245660A1 New Sky Energy, US20050178710A1 Honda "Substance activating method".

Patent family (foreign members), all priority 2007-10-05 [web: same page, "Priority Applications (15)"]

The CL divisional was filed 2011-11-10, after Tyson Larson's death (June 2010), so someone continued prosecution at least into late 2011. Its listing names the inventors as "William Larson Tyson Stehl" (garbled order in the database).

2. US 7,793,621 B2 "Alternative fuel engine" -- GRANTED [web: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7793621B2/en]

• This is the CIP application 12/244,648 (published as US 2009/0090312 A1, the project's second document). Granted 2010-09-14, 22 claims, inventors William Stehl and Tyson Larson, assignee Realm Industries. Status: Expired - Fee Related.
• So the project folder's statement that the patent "was not stated to have been granted" is now answered for the CIP: it was granted, about three months after Tyson Larson's death. The parent (bond-angle apparatus) was not.
• Legal events: assignment 2008-10-02 (reel/frame 021625/0645); small-entity status 2009-12-09; 4th-year maintenance fee paid 2014-03-12; maintenance-fee reminder 2018-04-30; lapsed for failure to pay maintenance fees, effective 2018-09-14 (recorded 2018-10-22 / 2018-11-13).
• Granted claim 1 (read from page, partial): a method of powering a motorized vehicle comprising (a) generating water vapor molecules with unnatural bond angles greater than approximately 104.5 degrees ("vapor molecules") in a storage container inside a motorized vehicle; (b) metering vapor molecules into an engine with a first mass flow controller; (c) "metering air flow into the engine with a second mass flow controller"; (d) mixing the vapor molecules, air, and a fuel in a compartment of the engine selected from a group; (e) actuating the vapor molecules inside a cylinder to drive a piston to create work.
• Bearing on claim 4 (claims.md): the allowed claim brings in air metering and a fuel, unlike Example 2's air-excluded Honda runs. Reviewers may want the claim history (what the examiner required) from the file wrapper.
• Non-patent citations (2): Balbuena, Perla B. et al., "Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Electrolyte Solutions in Ambient and Supercritical Water. 1. Ion Solvation", J. Phys. Chem. vol. 100, no. 7, 2706-2715 (1995).
• Cited by (13), including: WO2012162434A3 and US20190186022A1 (Advanced Combustion Technologies, "Combustible fuel and apparatus and process for creating same", priority 2011-05-23); US9272615B1 (David D. Cady, "Vapor transport fuel intake system"); US20180298813A1 (HMT Hydromotive GmbH, engine with electrolysis gas mixture); WO2022115593A1 (Clentech H2 LLC, "splitting water molecules into constituent hydrogen and oxygen gases"); WO2025075619A1 (H2Plus LLC, "Electrical power generation using structurally altered gas molecules"); JP4990110B2 (Hitachi, engine system); WO2013050882A2 (Kuregyan Kamo, structurization and polarization of fuel); US11415088B1 (C. Hugh Jonson, diesel emissions).
• Further family members listed on this page: PCT/US2009/039556, AU2009300273A, RU2011144434/06A, EP09818125A (all filed 2009-04-03; the "energy carriers" family, below).

3. WO 2010/039283 A2 "Method and apparatus for generating energy carriers and applications thereof" [web: https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2010039283A2/en]

• PCT/US2009/039556, filed 2009-04-03 by Realm Industries, priority from US12/244,648 (2008-10-02). Inventors William Stehl, Tyson Larson. Published WO2010039283A2 2010-04-08, A3 2010-05-27. National phase: EP09818125A, AU2009300273A, RU2011144434/06A. Status: Ceased.
• This is very likely the "patent filed in March 2009" / "April 2009" mentioned in the Ventura County Star and Simi Valley Acorn articles (filing date 3 April 2009). [inference; dates match]
• New, inventors' own words, not in the project folder [web, paragraphs as numbered on the page]:
• [0031]: the inventors say they "recognize that skeptics may find it difficult to believe" the process makes water molecules with unnatural bond angles and, "out of an abundance of caution", acknowledge that the process "could result in the production of hydrogen gas (H2) and oxygen gas (O2)".
• [0032]: "regardless of the product produced" the process is an efficient way to make an energy product, so the product is renamed an "energy carrier", which "includes but is not limited to molecules with unnatural bond angles and H2 and O2 gas". They add that the identity of the energy carrier "may be debatable" but the apparatus and process "are clear".
• [0036]: "hydrogen and oxygen gases may be generated from the processes described herein at some resonating frequencies", so the invention is also claimed as "an efficient method of generating industrial gases, such as hydrogen and oxygen".
• [0058] and [0067]: the parent's "insufficient to break the covalent bonds" becomes "may be insufficient", and "it may be possible that covalent bonds are broken" / "at certain modifying frequencies, covalent bonds may break".
• [0030]: the parent's statement that the product "is safer to use than the highly explosive hydrogen gas produced by electrolysis" is dropped; only the lower-energy and no-electrolyte claims remain.
• [0003]: new background stating hydrogen-powered cars "pose a danger due to the explosiveness of hydrogen".
• [0083]: the 60:40 / 70:30 diesel statement now begins "In test experiments", still with no data.
• Examples [0074]-[0078]: the same three examples (torch; Honda GX340/GX390 with "not outside air"; Toyota FJ-40 Figs. 11-13) with "vapor" replaced by "energy carriers". No new measurements (no composition, current, power or flow).
• Bearing on claims: directly on claim 2 (vapor is a distinct substance from electrolysis gas) and claim 3 (safer and lower energy than electrolysis). The inventors themselves, in April 2009, widened the claimed product to include H2 + O2. This is the inventors' own characterization, made in a commercial filing; it is a hedge, not an admission that the bond-angle theory is wrong.

4. Assignee listing [web: https://patents.google.com/?assignee=Realm+Industries&dups=language]

About 21 publications, all from the two families above: US7793621B2, CL2011002811A1, AR068735A1, BRPI0818494A2, US20090090312A1, CA2705082A1, EP2209550A4 (supplementary search report, 2011-06-29), EP2209550A1 (2010-07-28), WO2009046355A1 and others. No Realm Industries filing outside these two families was seen.

5. Inventor search: Stehl, priority before 2007, "water" -- negative for William Stehl

About 12 results, all other Stehls (Rudolph H. Stehl, Dow Chemical, chromatography 1978-1982; Otto Stehl; O. Stehl). No earlier patent by William Stehl was found under that query. The AP (Press-Telegram, 2011) says Stehl sold "Rainbow Technology's patents and equipment" to Timothy A. Larson in 2005; which patents those were is unknown. Next run: search "Rainbow Technologies" and "BGX" as assignee, and Stehl with other spellings.

6. WO 2023/055615 A1, R2D2 LLC (related work, priority 3) [web: https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2023055615A1/en]

• "Structurally altered gas molecule produced from water and method of generation thereof." Inventors Jared Roberts, Gene Dedick; assignee R2d2 LLC; PCT/US2022/044167 filed 2022-09-21; US continuations 2023 (US18/376,790, /376,765, /376,741, /376,783, US18/518,525). Status of the PCT: ceased.
• Abstract: electrolyte solution plus purified water in a chamber, with a "focused magnetic field and an electric field", gives a "structurally altered gas molecule" of two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen, with H-O-H bond angle 94-104 degrees and H-O bond length 0.95-1.3 angstrom, "stable at a pressure exceeding 300 pounds per square inch gauge".
• The examiner cited Realm's US20090092540A1 against it. The related H2Plus LLC filings (2023) apply such "structurally altered gas molecules" to plant hydration, fossil-fuel treatment and power generation.
• Bearing: the same core idea (a stable, storable gas made from water whose molecule has an altered geometry, different from steam or a plain H2/O2 mix) is being claimed by others 14 years later. Note the difference: R2D2 claims an angle below 104.5 degrees; Realm claimed above 104.5 (up to 180). No connection of persons to Realm was seen.