The first case filed in a potential wave of patent infringement litigations based on nanotechnology patents, Dupont v. Cabot, represents what many feel will turn out to be a growing trend amongst companies selling products with tiny parts. By tiny, we mean really tiny, as nanotechnology includes structures, machines, devices and parts that function on a molecular level.

While no one can predict how the litigation environment will evolve to absorb the changes brought by the nanotechnology field, all eyes will be on the top players and how they prepare for the new world created by this innovative new technology. 

According to a January 18, 2007 press release, Cabot Microelectronics Corporation, the world's leading supplier of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) slurries to the semiconductor industry, announced that it filed a legal action against DuPont Air Products NanoMaterials LLC (DA Nano) for DA Nano's manufacture and marketing of certain CMP slurries used for tungsten CMP that infringe patents owned by Cabot Microelectronics.

As explained in Cabot Microelectronics' December 12, 2006 press release on the matter, Cabot Microelectronics filed its complaint as a counterclaim in response to an action filed by DA Nano in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona regarding some of the patents at issue.

"Cabot Microelectronics remains committed to the enforcement of our intellectual property and protection of our significant investment in patent-protected research and development," stated H. Carol Bernstein, Cabot Microelectronics' Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel. "We believe certain of DA Nano's products infringe our tungsten CMP technology, and we are disappointed that thus far they have refused to switch to non-infringing technology. We look forward to the successful resolution of this litigation."

To review the complaint and counterclaim download the .PDF.