Report: Nanotechnology Patents Spreading But Regulatory Framework Needed

The non-profit ETC Group has released a report on global governance of nanoscale technologies that showed that thousands of patents are being granted on this still little understood area of science.

The ETC report [pdf] entitled, The Big Downturn? Nanogeopolitics, aims to provide a snapshot of current investment, governance, and intellectual property trends on these technologies.

According to the report, as of March 2010, 6,000 patents for nanotechnologies had been awarded by the United States Patent and Trademark Office alone. The US government was the “largest patent patron for 2008,” with research and development funded by the Department of Energy, Air Force, National Institutes of Health, Army, Department of Defense, Food and Drug Administration, and National Cancer Institute.

Although the “market is soft,” too much has been invested by world’s governments in nanotechnology R&D – partly to address climate change issues – for the technology not to be promoted commercially, the report said.

But the absence of labelling rules on products containing nanoparticles makes it difficult to determine the extent of their use, as well as the health and economic impact of nanotechnologies, the report said.