1 NanoFabrication : Implications For The Viability Of Intellectual Property Protection

One of the most popular topics for legal analysis today is "Nanotechnology." One way that this topic is addressed is to apply historical experience and existing ideas to the development of this technology. However, many times this analysis flows from the assumption that nanotechnology is, from an Intellectual Property (IP) perspective, no different than other technologies, such as the development of early radio. As such, these approaches often ask questions from the perspective of how IP law will influence the development of the technology. This short paper takes a different approach by posing the reverse proposition: how will nanotechnology (and nanofabrication in particular) affect existing systems of IP law and, more importantly, can these IP systems be viable in view of realized nanofabrication. As implied above, the proposition is worth exploring because nanofabrication is/will be different from most other technologies that are patented. Firstly, nanofabrication, as discussed below, will enable relatively inexpensive, distributed, fabrication of numerous products which would otherwise, in today's world, have been manufactured in plants and distributed to buyers. Secondly, the scope of people which will desire to have these products (i.e., products fabricated via nanotechnology) will be large in comparison to historical experience. Both of these factors, and likely others, may raise questions of whether existing IP systems, such as patent protection, are viable.