Mechanical Technology Inc (MKTY) announced an exclusive alliance with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., ("Samsung"), a technology innovator in the telecommunications industry, to develop next-generation fuel cell prototypes for Samsung's mobile phone business. Mobion®, MTI Micro's patented direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) technology, has been chosen to power a series of prototypes designed for Samsung's mobile phone and mobile phone accessories. [ more ]

Samsung is going to be committing up to $1 million in development money for the project and it marks a large step forward in the future development of the micro fuel cell marketplace. I also see this as a solid win for Mechanical Technology. Under this deal the two companies will jointly research the use of methanol-based fuel-cell technologies for use in cell phones. Any patents that come as the result of the research will be assigned to Mechanical Technology.