As to a large company like GE, the following part of an article explains how the "REFR ball" can easily get dropped or forgotten.
article titled: Permission Granted - licensing ideas is an often
neglected means of getting cash-strapped projects off the ground.
writen by Barry Rien, senior partner of Pennie & Edmonds
(from Machine Design magazine, march 7,1996):
LICENSING TO LARGE COMPANIES:
"If you write to the president of a large company about your technology, you will rarely get a satisfactory or timely response. And if you do license your technology to a large company, you may find it does not move quickly enough, or it may not fully exploit the licensed technology. The internal organization and the politics of large companies sometimes get in the way. You need to find someone in that company who will serve, unofficially, as a "sponsor" of your technology. Such a person must have two qualifications. First, he or she must be placed highly enough in the licensee company to get things done. Second, they must be personally convinced the license is valuable to the company, so they see the arrangement as a means of their own advancement. Finding the right person is difficult but essential if your effort to license to a large company is going to succeed."
I learned a few years ago from REFR that two key employees that
served as sponsers in GE have left the company. Hence, maybe GE is
now "brain dead" to any good things REFR has to offer.
As far as finding a sponsor in Hankuk; I think its own CEO is the prime mover and shaker over there. MSC and Orcolite also appear to have sponsors, based on the level of high activity and reports of progress.
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