Nanotechnology: building materials and devices by controlling
matter at the atomic and molecular level. An interdisciplinary
field with far-reaching applications. Monica Patel explores five
particularly interesting patents in this area...
It may appear that commercialisation of nanotechnology solutions
has been relatively modest to date; however, a range of solutions
has been developed in key areas such as materials science,
medicine, information processing, magnetism, and analysis of
nanostructures. Effective commercialisation relies on obtaining
protection for the solution through patent rights. A patent is a
legal right enabling the owner to stop others from making use of
the patented invention without permission. When filing an
application for a patent, applicants must in return disclose the
details of the solution and how the invention works. To demonstrate
some of the problems that have been solved in recent years, here is
a selection of 5 patented inventions in
