Title: Systemic insights into nanotechnology patenting in EU countries

Authors: Marek Jemala

Addresses: Institute of Industrial Engineering and Management, Slovak University of Technology, Paulínska 16, 91724 Trnava, Slovakia

Abstract: Although modern nanotechnology (NT) is a new discipline, nano-scale materials were used for centuries, for example, gold and silver particles have created colours in the stained glass windows of churches since the ancient time. Today, there is not a unified definition of what precisely NT is, because NT has an interdisciplinary nature. A growing interest in NT, a growing number of NT innovation and patents raise the question, what makes NT so attractive? This paper has two main goals and parts. The methodological section provides a clear insight into the development, main issues of patenting, searching and categorisation of NT. This part is often overlooked in many scientific papers on NT, which brings many inaccuracies for this discipline. The analytical section provides a clear insight into nanotechnology patenting in Europe, based on the comprehensive EPO patent database analysis (1899-2013).

Keywords: nanotechnology patenting; patent search; patent categorisation; European patents; EU countries; European Union; nanotechnology patents.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASM.2015.068589

International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 2015 Vol.8 No.1, pp.1 - 22

Received: 25 Apr 2013
Accepted: 01 May 2014
Published online: 06 Apr 2015 *

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