BBC TV news today had a report on the importance of graphene, a single layer (one atom thick)“honeycomb” form of carbon which has useful properties, and which was discovered in Manchester in 2004 by two Russian scientists (who later received a Nobel Prize). The report mentioned that the discovery hadn’t been patented.
Their website has an interesting article, Graphene: patent surge reveals global race which shows that the UK is a long way behind China, the USA and South Korea. This is from quotes from an apparently priced report by CambridgeIP including there being over 7000 published patent specifications for the new material.
The reason why there are so many patent documents is that graphene can be used for many different purposes. It can be used for example for delivering medicines, as in this list (as it has such a high surface area).
It is also one hundred times stronger than steel. Its use as a flexible, electrically conductive material means that it can be used in solar cells and in the touchscreens of mobile phones.
Identifying such patents sounds hard, though.
Bytesize Science has an interesting video called Graphene: the next wonder material ? which suggests that new phone touchscreens will be the first significant use of graphene.
Steve,
I suspect that the authors of the report have measured UK patent activity simply by measuring GB patents.
Searching graphene in title or abstract and EP as country code in Espacenet gives 131 hits. It is likely that most of these if granted will maintain the UK designation.
Searching graphene and GB as priority (a crude and not wholly accurate measure of the location of the invention) gives 22 families, most of which will comprise two or more patents.
In any case, the number of patents granted by a particular country in respect of a particular technology reflects more the definition of unity of invention applied there.
Chris Torrero
PS, there seems to be something wrong with your link to the BBC website, it gives a 404 error. The correct link is http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20975580
[Thanks, Chris ! Ed.]
Posted by: Chris Torrero | 15 January 2013 at 12:12
Looking on Espacenet the CPC already has a classification for graphene, including subclasses for various specific means of preparation and treatment.
Posted by: D | 15 January 2013 at 16:27