As of Feb. 20 Applied Energetics Inc. is the corporate name of what was Ionatron. The company said the name change is meant to reflect a new direction in its product development and to distance it from some bad history.

"Our company has moved well beyond our foundation in scientific discovery," said Dana Marshall, chairman, president and CEO. "We also hope that this new name will highlight the significant changes we’ve made to our management approach as we have matured this business over the past two years."

An Ionatron founder and former CEO, Robert Howard, resigned in March 2006, citing his age of 83 at the time. But there were also charges that led to a shareholders lawsuit filed in July 2006 claiming impropriety between Ionatron executives and Pentagon officials over a device it was trying to sell the military to jam detonation of improvised explosve devices (IEDs).