China's nanotechnology patent applications rank third in world ( 2003-10-03 10:19) (Xinhua) Patent application cases
concerning nanotechnology have grown rapidly in China over recent years, with
the number following the United States and Japan to take the world 's third
place.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology ( MST), during
the decade before 2001, China's total applications for nanotechnology patents
numbered less than 1,000. The figure soared in the past two years and amounted
to 12 percent of the world's total. China now has more than 2,400 such patents.
China is one of the few countries which started focusing research on
nanometric materials in the 1990s. Currently, China's research in nanometric
materials and their applications, tunnel microscope analysis and monatomic
control, has approached the international advanced level. However, domestic
studies in nanometric electronics and nanometric biomedicine still lag behind
developed countries.
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