Nanotechnology: A Source of New Business Opportunities?

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 6, 2002 - As a panelist at the PSI Conference held on May 6, 2002, at the University of Delaware, Arnold Winter, principal of Intellectual Capital Consulting, LLC, discussed what it takes to commercialize new technologies such as nanotechnology.

"Cool nanotechnology does not automatically translate into mega business opportunities," Winter told an audience that included scientists, entrepreneurs, and investors.

What actually is nanotechnology? The Implementation Plan for the National Nanotechnology Initiative launched by President Clinton in 2001 describes nanotechnology as "the ability to work at the molecular level, atom by atom, to create large structures with fundamentally new molecular organization."

The NNI's Plan states that long-term research and development efforts in nanotechnology could lead to "potential breakthroughs in areas such as materials and manufacturing, nanoelectronics, medicine and healthcare, environment, energy, chemicals, biotechnology, agriculture, information technology, and national security." For this reason, the federal government is investing around $500 billion in nanotechnology during the current fiscal year.

According to Winter, much of the current research and development activities in nanotechnology involve federally funded basic research within the national laboratory system and at universities. At the same time, federal law provides a framework for transferring the results of such activities to the private sector for commercial development. "This means that technology transfer programs run by the federal government and universities can be a rich source of new business opportunities in nanotechnology for entrepreneurs and investors," Winter said.

"However, commercializing emerging technologies like nanotechnology is no easy feat," Winter explained. "It requires creating and extracting business value. Since intangible business assets are the main source of business value in today's knowledge economy, turning basic research into commercially viable business opportunities starts with creating, protecting, managing, and leveraging proprietary intellectual property, intangible business assets, and other intellectual capital."

The PSI Conference was presented by the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce and the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce, with major sponsorship by the University of Delaware. Additional sponsors included GetContactX, of which Intellectual Capital Consulting is a corporate member.

Intellectual Capital Consulting, LLC, (iCap Consulting™) provides business and management consulting services that focus on the core assets of the information age-knowledge and information, intangible business assets, and other intellectual capital. iCap Consulting also addresses general entrepreneurial and business needs for a variety of clients with research, information, analysis, strategies, and business planning and development.

# # #

For more information, please contact Arnold Winter at (610) 891-6910.

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Bio ] [ Articles ] [ Resources ] [ Speaking Schedule ]

Postal Address: Arnold W. Winter + 125 Kelly Lane + Media, PA 19063 + USA (By appointment only)

Phone: 610-891-6910 + Fax: 610-566-0957 + E-mail: arnold @ lawwinter.com

*) Kindly note that my email address is not shown here as a "clickable" hyperlink in order to foil spammers who use automated search tools to harvest email addresses from web sites for their databases. In preparing an email to me, please type the address directly into the "To" field of your email form -- of course, without spaces on either side of the "@" symbol.