ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the United States, but the raised apply to a wider array of nations and, even, transnational organizations and institutions. The path from the laboratory to commercial production is also strewn with societal, ethical questions that are independent of and reducible to either matters of risk assessment or regulatory policy. The potential governmental capacity obstacle to successful commercialization may have nothing to do with the front-line regulatory agencies one usually thinks about, but concerns a relatively low-key agency with a deceptively narrow mandate: the US Patent and Trademark Office. Ensuring sufficient governmental capacity is crucial to promoting innovation and expediting commercial production. As noted earlier, scientists, investors, and firms need to be confident that the Patent Office has adequate capacity so that patents will not be backlogged or awarded wrongly. The lesson for nanotechnology is that governmental agencies must be anticipatory and proactive if they are to protect the public interest from possible risks of emerging technologies.
