The U.S. Patent Office today (December 28, 2010) issued its final crop of 2010 nanotech Class 977 patents. Fifteen new nanopatents issued today, bringing the total to 780 for the year. It will take time to figure out all the trends in this data set. However, some preliminary observations include:
- Nano biotechnology is not too heavily represented; an estimate is that only about 10 – 15 percent are nano biotechnology depending on how one defines the term. More effort should be made in identifying nano biotechnology patents.
- 17 percent of the patents resulted from federal funding. What is the impact of these patents? The taxpayers have a right to know.
- About 30 percent are assigned to east Asian entities located in Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong (most of these are Japan, S. Korea, and Taiwan). While it is known that patent trends show a shift to east Asia, it was perhaps surprising that China does not have more patents.
These and other nanopatent trends should continue to be monitored and verified.