Carlson registered patents for his prototype, and for the final marketable version he hoped to develop after acquiring appropriate funding. But every corporation to which he applied, including IBM and 3M, turned him down. Eventually Carlson teamed with a non-profit research centre, and then with a commercial company that produced photographic materials. It took over 20 years for Carlson to develop his idea into a commercially available desktop copier. Marchessault applauded Carlson for taking the basic principles of photoconductivity and opposite charge attraction, and developing from these not only a marketable, useful product, but a whole field of research based upon that product.
Technology breeds industries which breed research.
From basic xerography, new research fields developed. One project is to develop a biodegradable plastic to coat paper, making it impervious to water. Many bacteria, under certain conditions, store food in the form of plastic polymers which can be harvested and processed. The plastic has other obvious applications, such as packaging for fluid commercial products like shampoo and cosmetics, and Marchessault said that several companies have expressed interest in his environmentally friendly product. He acknowledges that corporate ties to university research may involve the expectation of reciprocity.