The importance of standard setting for nanotechnology development has long been recognized. One important organization for standard setting is ASTM International. May 15, 2011 will kick-off ASTM’s Committee Week in Anaheim, California. On May 16 – 17, 2011, the ASTM nanotech committee, E56, will meet. I will be presenting to the group on recent developments in patent issues.
In many cases, one can only fully understand an invention by understanding the properties or performance in quantitative terms. This leads to the question of measurement. Patent documents, including patent claim strategies, can be improved by resort to standard testing, including ASTM testing. A review of the patent literature through May 5, 2011 shows that only 2.3% of the nanotech 977 granted patents refer to ASTM tests (160 out of 6,880 patents), and only 3.5% of the published nanotech 977 patent applications refer to ASTM tests (298 out of 8529).
Recent developments in the standardization processes from the solar cell and OLED sectors will be discussed. Patent claim construction and the risks of patenting a standard will also be discussed.
For more information about the program or to register, please visit the ASTM Committee Week Web page.