Intellectual Property Law

US Patent 7329369 - Semiconductor nanoparticle including electrostatically bound polymer

By blaisemouttet

This patent from Hitachi (priority 1/6/2005) includes some broad claims to functionalized semiconductor nanoparticles for luminescence applications. Claim 1 reads:

1. A semiconductor nanoparticle with electron-releasing groups arranged on the surface thereof, which is modified with a functional group-containing polymer that electrostatically binds to the surface of said semiconductor nanoparticle.

However, it seems that very little prior art was considered during examination (3 patent references and 0 non-patent literature were cited) and the patent was allowed immediately by the patent examiner. Some prior art may have been missed such as the article "Semiconductor Nanocrystals with Multifunctional Polymer Ligands" published in 2002.

Full post as published by TinytechIP on February 13, 2008 (boomark / email).