US Patent 8101149 - Uh-oh, carbon nanomaterial submarine patent

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8101149.html

Companies and patent attorneys involved in carbon nanotechnologies may want to note this patent from Mitsubishi Corporation. The patent priority goes back to 1990 so it is a potential submarine patent. The patent includes some very basic claims to carbon molecular structures that could arguably be applied to carbon nanotubes and other carbon nanostructures. A parent patent (US 7494638) issued back in 2009 but only included claims limited to C60 and C70. The first seven claims of this more recent patent are listed below.

1. Purified cage molecules consisting of carbon atoms.

2. Purified cage molecules consisting of carbon atoms in solid form.

3. Crystalline cage molecules consisting of carbon atoms.

4. A macroscopic amount of purified cage molecules consisting of carbon atoms.

5. A formed or molded product comprising purified C60 and/or C70.

6. A free-flowing particulate comprising cage molecules consisting of carbon atoms in microcrystalline form.

7. A solid comprising a macroscopic amount of cage molecules consisting of carbon atoms in crystalline form.

US Patent 7494638 - Purified fullerene

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7494638.html

Submarine patents used to be a big problem resulting in patents being issued many years or decades after initial filing with expiry dates based on the patent date. To solve this problem legislation was passed in 1995 changing the expiry dates to be based on the filing date rather than issue date but a few pre-1995 patents are still around. This patent from Mitsubishi (filed in 1990) may turn out to be the most famous nanotechnology-related submarine patent including extremely broad claims to purified fullerene structures. Richard Smalley, Harold Kroto, and Robert Curl are noted to have discovered fullerene in 1985 (winning the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry in the process) and some prior art related to their work was considered but apparently the prior art was insufficient to reject "purified" C60 for some reason. Claims 1-16 are listed below.

1. Purified C60.

2. Purified C70.

3. Purified solid C60.

4. Purified solid C70.

5. Crystalline C60.

6. Crystalline C70.

7. Purified crystalline C60.

8. Purified crystalline C70.

9. A macroscopic amount of purified C60.

10. A macroscopic amount of purified C70.

11. A product comprising crystalline C60.

12. A product comprising crystalline C70.

13. A free flowing particulate comprised of crystalline C60.

14. A free-flowing particulate comprising crystalline C70.

15. A solid comprising a macroscopic amount of crystalline C60.

16. A solid comprising a macroscopic amount of crystalline C70.