Today I sent a letter to Mr. Pedro M. Villa (Regional Director for Senator Bill Nelson of Florida) as a follow-up to the 3+ hour briefing I presented to Mr. Villa on TU 08MAR11 at Senator Bill Nelson's office in Coral Gables.
I hope the good Senator has the moral courage to respond with deeds not just words. I must say that I am slightly disappointed that the other Florida Senator and the Speaker of The House have not yet responded to my request for help.
Dear Senator Nelson:
CANVS Corporation, a three person, veteran-owned, small business, based in Coral Gables, Florida, was founded in 1998 to develop, and deliver, advanced capabilities to US military and intelligence communities. CANVS Corporation, a veteran-owned, small business founded by a former U.S. Army Aviation Warrant officer, has been developing advanced night vision capabilities for US Special Operations and the Intelligence Community since its inception in 1998. CANVS is most well known in the Night Vision Community for its work on Color Night Vision and Sensor Fusion Programs. On 11AUG10, CANVS Corporation vs. the United States of America was filed in the Court of Federal Claims for patent infringement related to CANVS’ Sensor Fusion Patent. In building its case against the U.S. Army, DARPA, SOCOM, and others, CANVS has comprehensively documented not only the specific inappropriate behavior associated with the case but also the processes employed by these agencies and associated individuals that have been operating in this fashion with impunity.
The narrative that follows illustrates several key points:
The Process by which new military technologies are developed, predominately by small, entrepreneurially-driven businesses and introduced to various Government Agencies.
How the government extracts information from industry primarily by small businesses and passes this information to large defense contractors in direct violation of federal technology leveling and transfusion laws.
The process by which government contracts for military programs are awarded. Although, on the face of it these contracting activities (supposedly regulated by the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations, DFARs, and Federal Acquisition Regulations, FARs) look like fair and open opportunities, the reality is that lobbying and back door dealing have totally subverted the process into a pay to play game. In addition to allowing theft of Intellectual Property, this process rarely results in the best equipment for the operators, and often results in significantly higher costs both monetarily and in the length of time it takes to get the equipment in question into the hands of the operational units that desperately need it.
The methods used by key Individuals in industry and government to subvert the process for individual and organizational gain to the detriment of the end users and creators of the technology. Golden parachutes, kickbacks, jobs-upon-retirement, re-tasking of congressionally-mandated budgets (against Federal Law), and other nefarious quid-pro-quo arrangements and how they undermine every aspect of the process.
How to address these issues so that our nation has an opportunity to recover and survive the ever increasing challenges that must be met in order to of protect our national security.
There are institutions (and individuals) in the United States Government whose sacred duty is to ensure that the guardians of our National Security have the tactical over-match capabilities they desperately need in order to successfully execute their missions and return home safely to their families. In addition, there are also rules, regulations, policies, and laws that clearly define appropriate behavior associated with these positions and duties.
In spite of these facts, there exists a persistent and troubling pattern of behavior exhibited by some government agencies, and certain individuals, that is not only wholly inappropriate, unethical, and in some instances illegal, but also threatens to destroy our nation’s ability to maintain our current status of global military preeminence and therefore our national security and interests.
A standard operating procedure has been put into practice by these institutions that allows key individuals to utilize layers of bureaucracy both, classified and unclassified, to expertly manipulate and exploit their respective positions/power for personal and bureaucratic gain at the cost of our National Security, the lives of our nations troops and at the expense of small businesses and one our nation’s most critical resources, its entrepreneurs.
CANVS serves as an excellent, though unfortunate example of the types of procedures, policies and practices that an entrepreneurial-driven, small corporation can expect to encounter when focusing on development of new technologies for US military and law enforcement markets. After ten years of classified “delaying tactics” that were employed by the U.S. Department of Defense, and more than five years spent by CANVS in a futile attempt to exhaust its administrative remedies, CANVS has reluctantly been left with no other alternative than to seek relief in the US Court of Claims (CANVS CORPORATION vs. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA). This suit was filed in the Court of Federal Claims on August 11, 2010 (see attached filing) alleging patent infringement by the United States Army, et al, associated with the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle (ENVG) program and various other currently fielded sensor fusion programs.
The following are links to link to:
The CANVS web page: http://www.canvs.com
The green night vision vs. CANVS Color Night Vision, cigar-smoking, split screen video: http://www.canvs.com/CANVS-cigar.wmv
Additionally, http://www.canvs.com/Walkenstein-4PTO.wmv is a link to the video sequence (of a digital clock in an otherwise dark room) that resulted in CANVS finally being issued the Sensor Fusion patent (the patent is attached with the filing). This video demonstrates the utility of independent manual gain control of the sensors (in this example gain control of the green image intensified night vision channel) which is one of the key claims in CANVS’ patent, as well as, the case before the US Court of claims.
Program Executive Office Soldier Enhanced Night Vision Goggle, ENVG (one of the infringing systems also involved in the illegal export charges http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17814559/ns/business-world_business/) Video: http://vimeo.com/4532787
Over $880,000,000 awarded on ENVG so far: http://www.defence-update.net/wordpress/tag/envg
Additional infringing devices include a number of sensor-fused weapon site programs:
The Dual-band Universal Night Sight http://www.omnitechpartners.com/osti/products/duns.htm
The Fused Multispectral Weapon sight http://www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_releases.html?d=65353
The FIST sight http://www.knightarmco.com/nightvision/index.html
The sensor fusion module on the Air Force Special Forces AC-130 Gunship http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/q-39/
The sensor fusion payload on the Marine Corps AH-1Z Super Cobra Helicopters http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/TSS/index.html
At least $6.4 Billion worth of sensor fusion payloads on the entire U.S. Army Apache Helicopter fleet (part of the Arrowhead upgrade program http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/Arrowhead/).
CANVS can provide substantive and comprehensive documentation of specific malfeasance of the types discussed in this document at the highest levels of Industry and government and if required testify before Congress, a grand Jury, and/or a special investigator. These specific instances described herein also serve to uncover and expose various “standard” operating procedures that are employed by federal agencies and third parties to take unfair advantage of small business.
I look forward to helping you both right these specific wrongs and addressing the broader issues in such a way as to help innovative small companies and our nation make the myriad contributions needed to secure our nation and its future.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Alexander Walkenstein
Chief Executive Officer
CANVS Corporation
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