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As products developed under the umbrella known as nanotechnology come closer to the market, the potential legal issues a company in the field may face can be divided clearly into two silos, experts say: intellectual property and regulations.
While regulatory concerns should have been at the forefront of nanotech executives’ minds since their companies were founded, the IP issues may be the biggest concern for those firms’ legal eagles, according to Chinh Pham of the Boston law firm Greenberg Traurig LLC.
“The thought is that as soon as one of these companies makes it big and starts generating revenue, someone will begin a suit and claim that there is IP infringement,” Pham said.
To be sure, Pham noted, nanotechnology is simply mirroring the IP path that most technology sectors travelled along in their formative stages.
“I am not sure that what you are seeing right now with the IP land grab in the nanotech area is any different than the land grab that happened in any other tech area,” he said. But one differentiator may be the fact that nanotech is a cover-all term that reaches across industries, depending on the application. With potential markets in basic materials, electronics, energy, defense, automotive and even home goods, nanotech is as far reaching and all encompassing a category as, say software. As the products in the nanotech field come to market, one can expect fights over who has the rights to, for example, using carbon nanotubes to help made fabrics easier to wash.
Patent Clash
One of the reasons the IP issue will become a tangle, Pham said, is the way the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issues patents. If you can show the USPTO that your use of a carbon nanotube is enough different than that of your competitor, you will likely be awarded that patent.
“The thing with patent law is that just because you have a patent doesn’t prevent you from infringing on someone else’s patent,” Pham said. That is why the courts get involved — to sort out who really has the rights to patents that both parties can legitimately claim.
It is likely the patent office will give out too many patents, because the applications will be based on use, not technology, which at its heart is pretty similar. Pham said, “There can only be so many ways you can describe a nanotube.”
When it comes to the regulatory legal concerns, Seth Coe-Sullivan of QD Vision Inc., has been in the thick of it. The co-founder and chief technology officer of Watertown-based QD Vision started working with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health on rules for workers who handle nanomaterials back in 2006 when the company was barely one year old. Working with NIOSH was a matter of enlightened self interest, Coe-Sullivan said. “We were a 10-person company at the time, but worked with them to help them establish guidelines,” he said. “If no one from the industry is there, then regulators will do what they do best — and regulate.”
QD Vision is using nanotechnology to make clear screens that have a matrix of nanoscale quantum dots. Safety regulations are important to the company, because it is doing all of its manufacturing at its facilities in Watertown.
Being closely involved in helping set regulatory guidelines has given Coe-Sullivan a fairly rosy outlook on how the federal government will work to balance the needs of worker and environmental safety with the needs of a growing national industry. “Telling people to wear a spacesuit to work just means that they won’t work in the U.S.,” he said.
Pham agrees that companies in nanotech need to be involved in the regulatory process, ideally as deeply as QD Vision, because organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency are defining more regulations every day. “I really can’t predict what is going to happen, but my sense is that if companies aren’t getting themselves ready for these issues, they are going to have a problem,” Pham said.
While regulations about worker and environmental safety may seem onerous on occasion, Coe-Sullivan understands the real value behind them.
“It is sort of a necessary hurdle,” he said. “We could talk about how it is a pain in the neck and why you wouldn’t want to do it, but going home at night and putting my 1-year-old to bed, I am glad we are doing it.”
Nano-diversity
A sampling of profiles of companies that lay claim to nanotechnology initiatives, drawn from Mass High Tech’s New England Tech Directory. Find more at http://directory.masshightech.com/mht/directory.
Cambridge Nanotech Inc.
Cambridge
Web: http://www.cambridgenanotech.com
Phone: 617-674-8800
Claiming to be the leading provider of atomic layer deposition (ALD) solutions, Cambridge NanoTech says it has more than 160 ALD systems installed worldwide. Cambridge NanoTech works on unique coating challenges by collaborating on breakthrough research with customers and by offering thermal, plasma-enhanced and large-area ALD systems.
Carestream Health Molecular Imaging Systems
New Haven, Conn.
Web: http://carestreamhealth.com/molecularimaging.html
Phone: 877-747-4357
Carestream supplies bio-molecular imaging systems and linked consumables for the life science research, drug development, molecular imawging based diagnostics and industrial/environmental testing markets.
Cheap Tubes Inc.
Brattleboro, Vt.
Web: http://www.cheaptubes.com
Phone: 802-254-6969
Cheap Tubes says, “We are committed to supplying the nanotechnology research and industrial community with the highest quality carbon nanotubes (CNTs) at the lowest prices, whether you’re an independent researcher or a large-volume user of CNTs or single-layered graphene.”
GVD Corp.
Cambridge
Web: http://www.gvdcorp.com
Phone: 617-661-0060
GVD Corp. is a surface technology company working on a breakthrough in nanotechnology, producing engineered polymer coatings that it says are unattainable using conventional technologies.
JEOL USA Inc.
Peabody
Web: http://www.jeolusa.com
Phone: 978-535-5900
JEOL offers high-performance test and measurement instrumentation used in scientific R&D: electron microscopes, electron beam lithography equipment, nuclear magnet resonance spectrometers, mass spectrometers and sample prep devices.
Kopin Corp.
Westborough
Web: http://www.kopin.com
Phone: 508-824-6696
Kopin calls itself the nanosemiconductor company, making nanotechnology-based displays for applications such as digital photography, personal video eyewear and military sights.
Moore Nanotechnology Systems LLC
North Swanzey, N.H.
Web: http://www.nanotechsys.com
Phone: 603-352-3030
“Nanotech designs and manufactures 3, 4, or 5 axis ultra-precision machining systems for single point diamond turning, deterministic grinding and glass press molding.”
Nanocomp Technologies Inc.
Concord, N.H.
Web: http://www.nanocomptech.com
Phone: 603-442-8992
Nanocomp is a supplier of carbon nanotube yarn and sheet materials for mechanical, electrical and thermal applications.
Nanoviricides Inc.
West Haven, Conn.
Web: http://www.nanoviricides.com
Phone: 203-937-6137
The company says it is the “world’s first specifically targeted nanomedicines that attack and destroy viruses.”
Nantero Inc.
Woburn
Web: http://www.nantero.com
Phone: 617-670-1763
Nantero uses carbon nanotubes for the development of next-generation semiconductor devices. These devices include memory and logic products.
Pioneer Surgical Technology Inc.
Woburn
Web: http://www.pioneersurgical.com
Phone: 781-933-6121
Pioneer Surgical is a life-sciences biomaterials company working to harness nanotechnology for spinal and orthopedic applications.
QD Vision Inc.
Watertown
Web: http://www.qdvision.com
Phone: 617-607-9700
QD Vision is a quantum dot product company delivering lighting and display solutions to major industries where color, power and cost matter.
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