Data which was not present in a patent application can be used to support an inventive step argument
Despite nanotechnology being a relatively recent development in scientific research, the development of its central concepts have taken place over a longer period of time.
According to StatNano, a total of 13,046 published patent applications related to nanotechnology were filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) in 2018.