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Nature Nanotechnology 4, 7–8 (1 January 2009) | doi:10.1038/nnano.2008.381

A new approach to intellectual property

Adarsh Sandhu

A record 1.76 million patent applications were filed worldwide in 2006, most of them by large industrial companies. However, in the face of dwindling profits, businesses can find it difficult to justify the cost of submitting and maintaining them all.