The Eco-Patent Commons: An Overview

The Eco-Patent Commons: A leadership opportunity for global business to protect the planet

The premise:

Sharing knowledge and technology that protect the environment is one way to address a wide range of challenges and threats to our planet. One vital way to share such knowledge and technology is through making patented technology available. Yet, to date, there has been no organized effort to make patents available, without royalty, to help enable the world community to reduce waste, pollution, global warming, and energy demands.

The Commons concept recognizes that some patents that provide environmental benefit may represent the jewels of a company’s kingdom. Asking an enterprise to relinquish such key assets is not the objective of the Commons. However, leading businesses may hold some patents that provide environmental benefit and do not represent an essential source of business advantage for them. Though these patents may provide nominal license or exclusivity potential for companies, they may provide greater value in a public commons. As has been demonstrated by the open source software community, the free sharing of knowledge can provide a fertile ground for new collaboration and innovation. Sharing environmental patents can help others become more eco-efficient and operate in a more environmentally sustainable manner—enabling technology innovation to meet social innovation.

The objectives of the Eco-Patent Commons:
• To provide an avenue by which innovations and solutions may be easily shared to accelerate and facilitate implementation to protect the environ- ment and perhaps lead to further innovation.

• To promote and encourage cooperation and collaboration between businesses that pledge patents and potential users to foster further joint innovations and the advancement and develop- ment of solutions that benefit the environment.

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