Nanotechnology Commercialization for Managers and Scientists

The nanotechnology industry is a fast growing industry with many unique characteristics. When bringing the results of nanotechnology research to the market, companies and universities run into unforeseen problems related to intellectual property rights and other legal and regulatory issues. An effective commercialization of the results of research requires basic knowledge of the relevant issues and a well-defined strategy, while the absence of such knowledge and strategy can be detrimental to the commercial potential of any invention. Even the most impressive scientific achievements can become a commercial failure due to a lack of understanding and strategy relating to the legal and regulatory issues surrounding the commercialization of a technology.

With contributions from twenty experts in the field, Nanotechnology Commercialization for Managers and Scientists discusses the most relevant issues that a company or university will face when bringing a nanotechnology invention to the market. A large part of the book will be dedicated to the obtainment, strategic use, valuation and licensing of patents. Further chapters will deal with e.g. investment, university-industry collaboration, environment health and safety, etc. In this way managers and scientists at universities and companies are provided with a handbook that provides them with industry specific basic knowledge of issues that they are unfamiliar with but is essential to the commercial success of their inventions.

General Intellectual Property Issues. Patent Procurement and Litigation. How to set up an effective IP strategy. How to manage a nanotechnology-based patent portfolio. How to identify patent infringements in the nanotechnology sector. Licensing issues in nanotechnology. Valuation of nanotechnology inventions. Attracting venture capital. How to liaise effectively with partners; academy-industry relationship. University and employee’s inventions. Environment, health and safety within the nanotechnology industry. How is nanotechnology perceived by society. Conclusions.

Wim Helwegen holds a Master of Laws degree in international and European law from Tilburg University in the Netherlands. He is specialized in the interaction of patent law and advanced technologies, such as nanotechnology and biotechnology. After having worked at a Court of Appeals in the Netherlands, Wim conducted postgraduate research at the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute at Queen Mary University of London. In 2007, he was appointed as a researcher at the IPR University Center in Helsinki. Currently, Wim is preparing a doctoral dissertation on the patenting of nanotechnology at the University of Helsinki. In addition, he is a lecturer in patent law at Hanken School of Economics.

Luca Escoffier graduated in law from the University of Parma, Italy, in 2001. He earned a Master of Laws in IP in 2003 (WIPO/University of Turin), interned at WIPO, and worked as an IP counsel for a nanobiotech company in Italy until 2008. He then moved to Seattle to work at the University of Washington as a visiting scholar and then as a visiting lecturer. Luca was one of the four experts selected in 2009 as Fellows at the Institute of Intellectual Property in Tokyo. He was one of the 80 students from Singularity University (in 2010) chosen from a pool of 1600 applicants to spend 10 weeks at the campus of NASA Ames in Mountain View. He is a Fellow of the Stanford-Vienna Transatlantic Technology Forum, and from May 2010 the founder and CEO of Usque Ad Sidera LLC. Luca is about to submit his PhD dissertation about nanotechnology patenting and valuation.