Patenting Nanotechnology

NOTE Patenting Nanotechnology: Problems with the Utility Requirement

¶1 Nanotechnology is a buzzword, which makes an exact definition tricky. But most experts agree that nanotechnology refers to technology at the nanometer scale, which is one billionth of a meter.1 To put this in perspective, one nanometer is about 100,000 times as thin as a human hair.2 But nanotechnology is more than just its small size. It also involves a new way to pursue technology. Before ...

The role of patenting activity for scientific research: A study of academic inventors from China's nanotechnology

Scientists from universities are becoming more proactive in their efforts to commercialize research results. Patenting, as an important channel of university knowledge transfer, has initiated a controversy on potential effects for the future of scientific research. This paper contributes to the growing study on the relationship between patenting and publishing among facultymemberswithChina’s ev...

Patenting of Genetic Inventions

The genetic inventions in the patent system are similar to chemical inventions. Genetic inventions that are patentable include genetic materials such as DNA, RNA, cDNA, EST’s (Expressed Sequence Tags), SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphs) and recombinant vectors. These inventions need to satisfy the criteria of patentability such as novelty, nonobviousness, utility, enablement and sufficiency of...

Patenting the human genome.

Patenting computer-designed peptides.

The problem of designing new peptides that possess specific properties, such as bactericidal activity, is of wide interest. Recently, attention has focused on the use of Computer-Aided Molecular Design techniques in parallel with more traditional 'synthesise and test' methods. These techniques may typically use Genetic Algorithms to optimise molecules based on Neural Network models that predict...