More than 1,600 consumer products manufactured with nanotechnology—science, engineering and technology executed at the nanoscale level—have entered the global marketplace since 2005, and the World Technology Evaluations Center has projected a $3-trillion market for nano-engineered products by 2020.
When manufacturing pioneers first began manipulating matter at the molecular level to achieve product and process innovation, Shook, Hardy & Bacon lawyers skilled in intellectual property, public policy, regulatory compliance, environmental law, supply-chain risk management, and product liability litigation recognized that this rapidly changing business environment would require their expertise.
By monitoring developments in regulatory, legal and scientific arenas, Shook lawyers are well-prepared to anticipate the environmental, health and safety issues that clients using nanotechnology may encounter given the specter of government regulators and private litigants turning their attention to the ever-increasing presence of this emerging technology.
Shook’s intellectual property lawyers, for example, have drafted and prosecuted patent applications as well as counseled clients about nanotechnology-enabled drug delivery systems, biomedical and biochemical applications, signal processing, and carbon nanotube construction and manipulation.
In conjunction with an American Bar Association nanotechnology initiative, we have also reviewed existing statutes and provided input to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about existing regulatory oversight of nanotechnology. We have provided similar input to the Food and Drug Administration and authored articles about ways that companies can mitigate regulatory, litigation and reputational risks related to the nanotechnology frontier.
