[E-rundbrief] Info 250 - ETC Group: Nanotechnology "Second Nature" Patents

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 250 - ETC Group (Canada): Nanotech's "Second Nature" 
Patents. ETC Group Releases New Report on Nanotechnology and Intellectual 
Property. (With contributions by Pat Mooney and others).

Bad Ischl, 16.6.2005

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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ETC Group Releases New Report on Nanotechnology and Intellectual
Property:

Nanotech's "Second Nature" Patents

ETC Group

News Release

16 June 2005

www.etcgroup.org

The full text of the 36-page report is available here:
http://www.etcgroup.org/article.asp?newsid=509

Twenty-five years after the biotech industry got the green light to
patent life, nanotech goes after the building blocks of life.

On the 25th anniversary of Diamond vs. Chakrabarty,* the US Supreme
Court's landmark decision (June 16, 1980) that opened the floodgates to
the patenting of living organisms, ETC Group releases a new report,
"Nanotech's 'Second Nature' Patents."

Since Chakrabarty, the biotech industry has worked hand-in-hand with
governments to allow for the patenting of all biological products - the
first monopoly grab over life. Chakrabarty set the stage for today's
nanotechnology patents, where the reach of exclusive monopoly is not
just on life - but the building blocks of life - nanotech's 'second
nature' patents," explains Hope Shand, Research Director of ETC Group.

ETC Group's new report examines current trends in intellectual property
and nanotechnology and the implications for the developing world.
Nanotechnology refers to the manipulation of matter at the scale of
atoms and molecules, where size is measured in billionths of meters.

The world's largest transnationals, leading academic labs and nanotech
start-ups are all racing to win monopoly control of tiny tech's
colossal market. "Control and ownership of nanotech is a vital issue
for all governments and civil society because nanomaterials and
processes can be applied to virtually any manufactured good across all
industry sectors," said Kathy Jo Wetter of ETC Group. "Patents are
being granted that cut across multiple industry sectors - a single
nano-scale innovation may span pharma, food, electronics and materials
alike," continues Wetter.  The US National Science Foundation predicts
that nanotechnology will capture a $1 trillion dollar market within six
or seven years.

ETC Group finds that breathtakingly broad nanotech patents have been
granted that cut across multiple industry sectors and include sweeping
claims on entire areas of the Periodic Table.  Although industry
analysts assert that nanotechnology is in its infancy, "patent
thickets" on fundamental nano-scale materials, tools and processes are
already creating thorny barriers for would-be innovators. Claims are
often broad, overlapping and conflicting - a scenario ripe for massive
patent litigation battles in the future.

ETC Group's report provides case studies of patent activity involving
four of nanotech's hottest and potentially most lucrative nanomaterials
and one essential tool: carbon nanotubes; inorganic nanostructures;
quantum dots; dendrimers; scanning probe microscopes.

G8: Downsizing Development? When the G8 Summit meets in Scotland next
month, the leaders of the world's most powerful countries will unveil a
"Pro-Poor Science" strategy to turn new technologies like nanotech into
a silver bullet for social injustice.

"Despite rosy predictions that nanotech will provide a technical fix
for hunger, disease and the environment, the extraordinary pace of
nanotech patenting suggests that developing nations will participate
primarily via royalty payments," said Pat Mooney, Executive Director of
ETC Group. "In a world dominated by proprietary science, researchers in
the global South are likely to find that participation in the nanotech
revolution is highly restricted by patent tollbooths, obliging them to
pay royalties and licensing fees to gain access," said Mooney.

"Ultimately, nanotech will profoundly affect the South's economy,
regardless of its handling of intellectual property," explains Silvia
Ribeiro from ETC Group's Mexico City office. "Nano-scale technologies
will revolutionize the way that new materials are designed and
manufactured - changes that could turn commodity markets upside-down
and make geography, raw materials, even labour, irrelevant. Nanotech
underpins a new strategic platform for global control of materials,
food, agriculture and health, and patent monopoly is a powerful tool
for realizing that strategy," said Ribeiro.

Many South nations are still grappling with unresolved controversies
over biotechnology, but by the end of this year, ready or not, even the
world's "least developed" nations who are members of the World Trade
Organization will be obligated by its Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property (WTO-TRIPs) to evaluate and enforce nanotech
patents.

Lessons learned from Diamond v. Chakrabarty: Despite all the hype about
Mr. Chakrabarty's oil-eating microbe and how it would gobble up oil
spills, the patented microorganism never worked. Instead of curing
environmental ills, the biotech industry has introduced its own
contamination problems - unwanted gene flow from genetically modified
crops, a particularly serious problem for centres of genetic diversity
in the developing world.

Unlike 25 years ago, today's nanotech-related patents have not required
major rule changes. As a result, many governments are unaware of the
nanotech patent rush. ETC Group recommends that the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) initiate a global suspension of patent
approvals related to nanotechnology until South governments and
countries-in-transition can undertake a full evaluation of their
impacts, and until social movements can cooperate with WIPO, the Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to examine the impact of
nanotech-related intellectual property on monopoly practices,
technology transfer and trade.

The full text of the 36-page report is available for downloading,
free-of-charge,
on the ETC Group website: http://www.etcgroup.org/article.asp?newsid=509

*Note to Editors: In 1971, Ananda Chakrabarty, an employee of General
Electric, applied for a patent on a genetically modified oil-eating
microbe. The US Patent & Trademark Office rejected his patent
application on the grounds that animate life forms were not patentable.
   On June 16, 1980 by a narrow 5-4 margin, the US Supreme Court ruled
that Chakrabarty's oil-eating microbe was not a product of nature;
living organisms could be seen as human made inventions and are
therefore patentable subject matter.

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Informationen von Matthias Reichl:

Weitere Texte zur Nanotechnologie:

Auf unserer Homepage www.begegnungszentrum.at/archiv - Info 198, 210, 216, 
224 (in Deutsch)

www.goethe.de/mmo/priv/580384-STANDARD.pdf - Pat Mooneys Referat im Goethe 
Institut München, März 2005 (in Englisch)

ORF-Ö1-Radiokolleg "Nanotechnologie", Mai 2005, Kassette

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Matthias Reichl

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