General Electric responds to a June 23 eMonday article about two patents filed by GE regarding high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) diamond treatment.

Letter to the editor

Your June 23 article on GE’s patent applications for our detection technology omitted several key points.

GE has filed for two patents. The first is for the HPHT process itself. The second covers the detection process. However, the detection patent only states that we have the technology to ensure that a stone has NOT been processed. We are not able to guarantee that a stone has been processed (in other words, if a diamond fails this test and has not been disclosed as HPHT, it would raise the question of why it failed the test).

GE, as a technological leader in many industries, has thousands of patents. GE uses patents to protect the company’s hard-earned intellectual property and ensure that GE will benefit from its own inventions. It is not GE’s intention, however, to use any patent position it may achieve to prevent HPHT processing detection from gaining widespread acceptance in the gem grading laboratories within the diamond industry at large. It is GE’s position, however, to do all it can to ensure that all entrants into the HPHT field follow the ethical path of full disclosure. Our sole goal is, and always will be, to uphold the integrity of our product.

Further information on Bellataire products can be found on our Web site: www.bellatairediamonds.com.

Michelle Kalina, Marketing Director, GE Gem Technologies.

The original HPHT story can be found in the Diamonds section of the JCK web site.

JCK