In the year 1999 Corten realized as employee of Energy Centre of the Netherlands that the cylindrical blade root could produce high lift by installing a adding an edge to the root possibly in combination with vortex generators. This edge obtained wide application and was patented in many countries.

About 10 years later Corten concluded that the blade roots could be further optimized by super high lift airfoils with vortex generators and with an edge which would consist of multiple small parts and this lead to another patent, this time filed by CortEnergy.  In 2019 this patent was sold to Wobben Properties of Enercon.