NOTE Patenting Nanotechnology: Problems with the Utility Requirement

¶1 Nanotechnology is a buzzword, which makes an exact definition tricky. But most experts agree that nanotechnology refers to technology at the nanometer scale, which is one billionth of a meter.1 To put this in perspective, one nanometer is about 100,000 times as thin as a human hair.2 But nanotechnology is more than just its small size. It also involves a new way to pursue technology. Before nanotechnology, the technological process was top-down: whittling a block of material to make a desired object.3 Nanotechnology, in contrast, is bottom-up: aggregating individual atoms and molecules to make a desired object.4 ¶2 Some commentators promise that nanotechnology will make us all "healthy and wealthy," ending myriad diseases "and even old age."5 Others take a more cautious tone. 6 Who is right? No one knows. But this uncertainty has not stopped inventors from filing patent applications with the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). Between 1997 and 2002, the number of nanotechnology patents grew by 600%.7 As of December