In the news. Last GDR Patent Expires. Centenary of Dutch Patent Law. Self-repairing solar cells. Hollywood and Bollywood sign historic agreement

• Pages: 29-29

IN THE NEWS

Last GDR patent expires

Dutch patent authorities are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the enactment of the 1910 Patent Law

(Rijksoctrooiwet). In

A Century of Patents in the Netherlands

, a jubilee volume published for the occasion, au-

thors from the Dutch patent community offer a vision of the past, present and future of patent law. A spe-

cial series of stamps featuring 10 unique Dutch inventions has also been issued, and an interactive tour-

ing exhibition of Dutch inventions, the Patent Parade, is on a one-year journey around the Netherlands.

The country’s first Patent Act was enacted in 1817 and subsequently abolished in 1869 when the

Netherlands “acquired the image of a free-spirited nation.”

Centenary of Dutch patent law

Millions of solar cells are used in devices,

such as solar panels, for harnessing the

sun’s energy – but when sunlight mixes

with the oxygen in the earth’s atmos-

phere, it can have a destructive effect on

solar cells, limiting their long-term effec-

tiveness. Professor Michael Strano, a

chemical engineer at the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology, and his team of

researchers have been seeking ways to

minimize solar cell deterioration.

They found that minute solar cells can

repair themselves using proteins from

the inner workings of plants. Professor

Strano and his team demonstrated that

tapping into the photosynthetic reac-

tion center of plants could lead to solar

cells with much longer lives thanks to

this self-regenerating mechanism. The

experiment employed lipids and carbon

nanotubes, known for their electrical

properties, as well as a surfactant, a mol-

ecule that breaks other molecules apar t

and keeps them separate. Once all parts

had been combined, the surfactant was

removed, with the result that the other

ingredients assembled themselves into

an array of working solar cells – only a

few nanometers wide. The cells draw on

this self-assembly process in order to re-

pair themselves.

Published in

Nature Chemistry

, the re-

search shows that, while more remains

to be done to refine the efficiency of re-

generated solar cells, this could lead to a

breakthrough in improving solar cell

production, and thus to enhanced, sus-

tainable environmental benefits.

Self-repairing solar cells

Representatives of the world’s two most prominent film indus-

tries, Holly wood and Bollywood, signed an historic coopera-

tion agreement at Paramount Picture Studios in Hollywood in

early November 2010. Under its terms, the city of Los Angeles

and the Indian film industr y agree to “develop and strengthen

motion pic ture production, distribution, technology, content

protection and commercial cooperation between the two

filmmaking communities,” according to a press release issued

by the Motion Picture Association of America on November

2010. The two par ties also support the establishment of the

Los Angeles-India Film Council to boost Indian film production

in Los Angeles. In March, the two industries launched in

Mumbai, India, the Alliance Against Copyright Theft, an Indian-

based coalition to protect content.

Hollywood and Bollywood sign

historic agreement

The last patent granted by the Office for Inventions

and Patents of the former German Democratic

Republic (GDR) expired at the end of October 2010,

according to a report in

The Local: Germany’s News in

English

. Patent number DD 298536 for a rotar y

screw cooling compressor was granted on October

2, 1990 – just one day before reunification – to

Dieter Mosemann, a prominent engineer and in-

ventor. Mr. Mosemann, Development Director at

the state-owned company VEB Kühlautomat, and

his team created cooling systems still used around

the world for a wide range of appliances, including

supermarket freezers, airplane climate control and

applications for cooling indoor ski slopes.