Nanophotonics technology watch at the European Patent Office

摘要

Since its inception, the nanotechnology working group at the European Patent Office has been constantly updating the content of its different nanotechnology classification tags which it applies to patent publications worldwide. The main technologies in the nanophotonics area are photonic crystals, surface plasmon devices, semiconductor superlattices and scanning near-field microscopy. Some patent statistics are shown and a brief summary of legal issues is given.