Pixel, Aspex Reach License Agreement

PixelOptics of Roanoke and and Aspex Eyewear of Montreal have created a new license agreement under which Aspex will become PixelOptics’ exclusive licensee for emPower! electronic eyeglass frames for North America. Aspex manufacture, distribute and sell emPower! electronic eyeglass frames in North America capable of housing Pixel’s electronic focusing eyeglass lenses.

Terms, say the companies, involve "a license fee of tens of millions of dollars,” and “is royalty bearing, and allows Aspex to be the sole provider of electronic eyeglass frames in North America for many years to come in the future.”

PixelOptics emPower! glasses “were perceived by wearers to be superior in seven out of eight vision performance categories,” says a press release. Ronald Blum, chairman and CEO of Pixel says, “It is gratifying to have a top eyeglass frame company like Aspex recognize the potential of emPower!. As you would expect we were very happy with the results of the independent clinical trial.

"We had expected equality in performance and were pleasantly surprised that emPower!, at this stage of development, was perceived by the wearers as being superior to one of the world’s well recognized, top quality, commercially available progressive addition lenses. We believe this bodes well for how emPower! will perform for wearers once it is fully optimized and commercially available.”

Mark Graham, director of electronic frames at Pixel, says, “In my 30 plus years in the eyeglass frame industry I have never witnessed such excitement as I am seeing for emPower! eyewear … For the very first time there is a convergence occurring of frames and lenses to allow for eyewear that provides unprecedented vision correction, performance and control for the wearer. Perhaps, the most important benefit to the wearer is having the near power available only as you need it.”