

Andre Geim: in praise of graphene - jpablo
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101007/full/news.2010.525.html

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jpablo
_You haven't yet patented graphene. Why is that?

We considered patenting; we prepared a patent and it was nearly filed. Then I
had an interaction with a big, multinational electronics company. I approached
a guy at a conference and said, "We've got this patent coming up, would you be
interested in sponsoring it over the years?" It's quite expensive to keep a
patent alive for 20 years. The guy told me, "We are looking at graphene, and
it might have a future in the long term. If after ten years we find it's
really as good as it promises, we will put a hundred patent lawyers on it to
write a hundred patents a day, and you will spend the rest of your life, and
the gross domestic product of your little island, suing us." That's a direct
quote.

I considered this arrogant comment, and I realized how useful it was. There
was no point in patenting graphene at that stage. You need to be specific: you
need to have a specific application and an industrial partner. Unfortunately,
in many countries, including this one, people think that applying for a patent
is an achievement. In my case it would have been a waste of taxpayers' money._

Crazy

