News | December 8, 2005

Arrowhead Assembles A Carbon Nanotube Patent Portfolio Through Exclusive Licenses With Leading Universities

Pasadena, CA - Arrowhead Research Corporation, a diversified nanotechnology company, announced that wholly owned subsidiary NanoPolaris, Inc. has assembled a portfolio of intellectual property to facilitate and enable the manufacture of nanotube-based products. NanoPolaris has exclusively licensed U.S. patents and patent applications covering technologies developed at:

  • California Institute of Technology
  • Duke University
  • The Pennsylvania State University
  • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • Tsinghua University at Beijing
  • University at Buffalo
  • University of California, Los Angeles
  • University of Toronto

    "We believe carbon nanotubes will create a manufacturing revolution comparable to what plastics did for materials and silicon did for electronics," said R. Bruce Stewart, Arrowhead's Chairman. "We are taking the lead in consolidating the fragmented patent landscape and working with manufacturers to integrate these materials into their end products."

    It is widely believed that carbon nanotubes' unique electrical, mechanical and thermal properties can be harnessed to substantially improve a variety of products, including semiconductor devices, television displays, solar cells, health care products and materials used in everything from automobiles to baseball bats. Numerous companies are now seeking to develop scaled manufacturing techniques to incorporate nanotubes into their products.

    "This portfolio of key patents and patent applications could be widely employed by different companies across many industries," said Leon Ekchian, President of Arrowhead. "NanoPolaris will not itself engage in manufacturing. Rather, it will provide a necessary and convenient patent toolbox to corporations planning to integrate nanotubes into their end products."

    NanoPolaris will seek to generate revenue by licensing intellectual property to customers who will utilize nanotube technology in their products. NanoPolaris now controls commercialization of issued patents and patent applications claiming nanotube compositions of matter and general manufacturing techniques such as chemical vapor deposition synthesis, plasma chemical vapor deposition synthesis, purification, solubilization, separation of certain types of tubes, coating, functionalization and manipulation.

    SOURCE: Arrowhead Research Corporation