SOCIETAL AND LEGAL ISSUES RAISED BY NANO PATENTS

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SOCIETAL AND LEGAL ISSUES RAISED BY NANO PATENTS
Julie Burger, J.D., Lori Andrews, J.D., Institut
e for Science, Law and Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology
For further information about this project email
jburger_at_kentlaw.edu
Methodology Project researchers analyzed U.S. pat
ents with the terms quantum dot and/or
nanocrystal in their title. This patent subset
was obtained by conducting an advanced search of
the USPTOs online database of issued patents.
The information contained in the patents was
compiled into a searchable database, which was
then analyzed.
The Numbers 307 Quantum Dot Patents issued betwe
en 1976 and 2006 165 unique primary examine
rs Only 7 examined 5 or more patents 80 exam
ined only 1 or 2 124 Unique Assignees Only 18
were cross referenced in the 977
nanotechnology classification 4,191 unique prior
art references 84 cited by Applicants 47 U
.S. Patents 46 other publications 22 had som
e government funding 39 of those received NSF f
unding One patent is actually a statutory i
nvention registration, but has been counted as a
patent for the purposes of this study.
Since 2001, when the USPTO first started to
report this data.
Research Area and Project Objectives
The project examined the intersection of
intellectual property law and nanotechnology to
investigate the societal, legal and ethical
issues that are raised by nanotechnology and
nanoscience. Nanotechnology holds tremendous
potential for the future from social benefits to
better healthcare, from economic opportunities to
environmental remediation tools. Yet the
development of these opportunities will be
influenced either negatively or positively by
the patent system and patent policies.
Why Quantum Dots? Quantum dots were chosen becaus
e they touch upon so many major areas of modern
life, fulfilling nanotechnologys promise of
wide-ranging applications in highly diverse
fields such as health care and medical
procedures, cosmetics, national security, optics,
structural materials, electronics, and energy.
Additionally, researchers have expressed concern
that nanotechnology patents in general, and
quantum dot patents in particular, contain
significantly overlapping claims, to the extent
that the commercial value of quantum dot
intellectual property has been cast into doubt.
This material is based in part upon work
supported by the National Science Foundation
(NSF) under grant SES-0508321, and by the Office
of Science, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under
Award Number DE-FG02-06ER64276.