## 3 Results and Discussion
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Application** & **Concentration** & **Microorganisms** & **Reference** \\ \hline \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Virus**} \\ \hline O3(g) & 1 and 6 ppm & SARS-CoV-2 & [29] \\ O3(g) & 273 ppm & SARS-CoV-1 & [31] \\ O3(g) & 20-25 ppm & MCOV (urine coronavirus) & [61] \\ O3(g) & 0.02-0.05 ppm & Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) & [63] \\ Bovine herpes virus 1 (HSV1) & Bovine herpes virus 1 (HSV1) & [63] \\ O3(g) & 3 and 5 ppm & Murine nonovirus (MNV1) & [64] \\ O3(g) & 1.44 mg/L & Hepatitis A virus (HAV) & [65] \\ \hline \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Bacteria**} \\ \hline O3(g) & 0.4 and 0.8 ppm & _Escherichia coli_ & [32] \\ O3(g) & 1.2-3.6 \(\mu\)g/mL & _Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC_ 15442 & [31] \\ \multicolumn{4}{c}{_Staghlyococcus aureus ATCC_ 6538} \\ \multicolumn{4}{c}{_Escherichia coli NCT_ 10538} \\ \multicolumn{4}{c}{_Emerences hire ATCC_ 10564} \\ \multicolumn{4}{c}{_Streptococcus spp._} \\ \multicolumn{4}{c}{_Staghlyococcus aureus_} \\ \multicolumn{4}{c}{_Staghlyococcus epidermidis_} \\ \multicolumn{4}{c}{_Aeroococcus viridans_} \\ \multicolumn{4}{c}{_EnterocFigure 1b presents the expiry year of patent applications according to the protection period of each country. According to the results, documents should expire between 2028 and 2030 according to the legal validity related to invention patents, which usually last 20 years [69]. The largest number of documents with loss of exclusivity are in 2030, which means that the developed technology will enter the public domain and could be reproduced by other companies or institutions in the market in which they were valid. After 2038, a total of 262 documents will expire. These results are in line with the first patent application in 2009, which may be indicative that most patented technologies consist of invention patents that have a protection period of 20 years from the deposit date of the patent. The period of the validity of a patent, whether invention or utility model, may vary according to industrial property laws of each country. In Brazil, for example, it is possible to obtain a technology patent letter in both forms: invention patents with validity of 20 years or utility model patents with validity of 15 years [70]. In many sectors, serious losses in sales and profits for established companies and a drop in productivity in R&D follow the loss of patent protected exclusivity. However, the expiry of patent protection promotes participation and competitiveness among manufacturers of the product in the market, reduction of prices because of increased competition and innovation for the development of new products related to the area of disinfection technologies that use O\({}_{\text{3(g)}}\) or O\({}_{\text{3(aq)}}\) as a decontaminating agent [71]. Analysis of the holders and their legal status (Figure 2) showed that 65% of the found patent applications are live patents (400), while 21% are in an undetermined state (129), and 15% are dead (91), totaling the 620 individual documents found in the technological search (Figure 2a). These results indicate the potential development of technologies based on the creation of devices that use O\({}_{\text{3(g)}}\) or O\({}_{\text{3(aq)}}\) as a biocide agent for sterilization and disinfection in several areas. The company TSO\({}_{3}\) Inc. has a higher number of current records (141; Figure 2b), comparatively, almost a monopoly of technologies possibly related to O\({}_{3}\) disinfection chambers. These results indicate that this company has 238% more records than its nearest competitor, Ethicon Inc. Although TSO\({}_{3}\) Inc. has some dead records, the number of living records is much higher. In comparison to the top 10 applicants in this set of results, TSO\({}_{3}\) Inc. has 51% of these applicants. Founded in 1998, TSO\({}_{3}\) Inc. covers the sale, production, maintenance, research, development, and licensing of sterilization processes, and related consumable supplies and accessories for heat-sensitive medical devices.