Patent survey on recent technology for nanoparticles

Abstract

A patent is a form of right granted by the government to an inventor, giving the owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell, and importing an invention for a limited period of time, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention. An invention generally has to fulfill three main requirements: it has to be new, not obvious, and have an industrial application. The chapter represents patent distribution according to the different types of nanoparticles used as well as the patent distribution according to the responses to different stimuli; the highest responses tend to fall under the receptor-/aptamer-mediated category. Receptors/aptamers are used as an attractive strategy to enhance the therapeutic index of drugs and to specifically deliver these agents to the defined target cells, thus keeping them away from healthy cells, which are sensitive to the toxic effects of the drugs. The chapter also focuses on patent distribution according to the routes of administration of the drug particle; the most commonly used route is parenteral, owing to the fact that the effects of the medication are much rapid and that it can be administered directly to the site. Also discussed is the patent distribution on the basis of form of delivery. Earlier known as lipid vesicles, the recent most popular form of delivery of the drugs are liposomes, as is evident from the graph. The exceptionally high use of liposomes accounts to the fact that they have high retention rates and excellent targeted sustained release. The patent distribution trends relate the five broad classifications of cancer types. Most widely treated cancer is carcinoma, which contributes the highest ratio of patents as analyzed. Carcinoma class includes the most common type of cancers occurring in humans and can be cured using the technology implying nanoparticles, while sarcoma cancers, related to bone and the connective tissues, is a very complex category and is difficult to treat using any technique.