Briefing: Nanotechnology

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INDUSTRY CHALLENGES: THE NEED FOR TRANSITION FROM PROCESS TO PRODUCT

The focus of nanotechnology innovation is to take insightful ideas in nanoscience and engineering successfully to the market. Nanotechnology innovation involves the development of new products and processes and the fresh technical insights that begets them. New products can take the form of high- evel building blocks (nanomaterial such as nano silver particles), mid-level intermediate goods (porous ceramics blocks coated with nano silver) and groundlevel final products (water purifier based on antibacterial action of nano silver). The underlying know-how for new products includes high-level general principles, mid-level technologies, and ground-level, context-specific rules of thumb.

Technology innovations, especially high-level ones, usually have limited economic or commercial importance unless complemented by lower-level innovations. New know-how and products require interconnected, non-technological innovations on a number of levels.

Currently, the conversion of ideas in nanoscience and engineering into corresponding innovations is relatively poor. Even if the seed idea is of very high technical merit, there is still a very high probability that it fails to reach the market or meet the consumer’s needs. First, the idea must be aligned with an important problem to be solved. Then the idea has to be strengthened into a rigorous solution. The intellectual property around the solution needs to be protected either through a portfolio of patents or other appropriate IP tools. And the freedom to practice the idea in a product/service must be established. The proof of concept should always be demonstrated through an appropriate prototype. Moreover, the idea should continue to work satisfactorily when scaled up in a manufacturing plant. The manufacturing process needs to be designed such that the end product is safe, cost-effective, and high in quality.

There are multiple stages and gates through which the idea has to sail safely to reach the market. The process of innovation is, therefore, not confined to the R&D lab, but is spread across the breadth of the organization and sometimes beyond. In order to accelerate the transition of ideas into innovation and to maximize the return on innovation investment, many organizations are adopting the open innovation model where all players share their knowledge, participate in the development, and get the credit and a fair share of the innovation success.

India has a great opportunity to create an innovation ecosystem that facilitates the transition of nanoscience ideas into nanotechnology innovations. A close partnership between academia, industry, and government is desired to define a prioritized technology road map and set the stage for purpose-driven nanotechnology innovations. Investing in new ideas is traditionally considered as a high-risk, but effective management of the innovation process can significantly reduce the risk. Hence, India can emerge successful in commercializing nanotechnology innovations by creating a healthy innovation ecosystem and culture of innovation, excelling in technology innovation management across the value chain, and by adopting open innovation philosophy to accelerate the process and minimize the investment.

Most nanomaterials companies have an offering which is either a process or a material made using that process. Successful adoption of nanomaterials in a product depends on our ability to demonstrate: a process that can engineer nanomaterials with high reliability; that nano-enabled products have significant functional benefits over existing products; an appropriate price point implying that nanomaterials must be produced in sufficient volume in the right quality, price, and yield.

Commercialization of nanotechnology needs a shift from “proving something can be done” to the entrepreneurial approach of “proving something can be sold”. Further industrialization of this commercialized nanotechnology requires yet another shift to “proving something can be reliably, safely, massproduced while achieving economies of scale.”

It is critical for companies involved in nanotechnology research to protect their intellectual property in order to commercialize their inventions. The protection could be in the form of patents and trade secrets. Further, patents can be licensed to third parties who would like to make use of these inventions. In fact, Indian patent law facilitates compulsory licensing of granted patents after expiry of three years from the grant of the patent. This kind of compulsory licensing would ensure that the inventions are worked in India on a commercial scale and to the fullest extent without any undue delay.

Here are some of the key strategies that need to be adopted by inventors to obtain strong, valid and defensible patents on their inventions: Conduct a “prior art” search and a “freedom to operate” search. It is important to do a thorough prior art search before you prepare the patent application, in fact before you finalize your project proposals. A clear idea of the prior art would avoid “reinventing the wheel” kind of inventions, would save a lot of time and money, and would lead to patentable inventions. This would also help in designing around potential prior art. Another point to remember is that the patent owner does not automatically have the right to practice her/his invention. It may be wise to conduct a “freedom to operate search” before investing and commercializing it.

Avoid early publication or any public disclosure. Inventors should refrain from disclosing details of their inventions, submitting grant proposals, sell or offer to sale products before filing of patent applications. This caution may be more relevant to inventors working at universities where the trend is to publish rather than to patent their inventions. To draft strategic patent applications in a complex and interdisciplinary area such as nanotechnology is a very challenging task. One has to carefully consider all the existing prior art-patents and published papers, meticulously prepare the claims in order to get maximum coverage, and at the same time avoid entry into others’ territory.