The Eco-Patent Commons Caring Through Sharing

Century-old sewing machines would seem an unlikely source of inspiration for the greening of modern manufacturing. But a patent-sharing scheme similar to that used to liberate the sewing machine industry in the 1850s is now being employed to make business cleaner.

The Eco-Patent Commons, founded by some of the world's biggest companies - IBM, Nokia, Sony and Pitney Bowes - provides a means of sharing knowledge for mutual and wider social benefit. The idea is that patents that may have environmental benefits for other manufacturers are contributed to a pool, from which other contributors - and businesses and individuals outside the pool - can draw, free of charge. The technology, which may deal, for instance, with energy conservation, pollution prevention, recycling or water conservation, can then be applied more broadly.

The commons, run by the Geneva-based World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), was born of an idea coming from IBM, the company with the largest number of patents in the world.

Not business as usual

Wayne Balta, IBM's Vice President, Corporate Environmental Affairs and Product Safety, explains that a year-long, in-house project examining energy and innovation led to the realization that many companies possess intellectual property that they perhaps did not even realize they had, and certainly nobody outside the company knew they had. Much of that technology could not only be used by other companies but used as a tool for further innovation. IBM approached the WBCSD with the idea, along with other companies they identified as having an environmental agenda and an open mind on intellectual property, and the commons came to fruition - initially with 31 patents pledged - in January 2008.

Mr. Balta says that, while it seems at odds with their competitive spirit for companies to effectively give away technology they have invested in developing, giving to the commons is not just an act of charity. "It's one of those things where, at the beginning, when you create something that's this different, you do not know definitively that it will deliver a specific, quantifiable business benefit."

"We could just continue to possess these patents and it would be business as usual. Or, we could look at our patent portfolio and identify some that we're not going to get the...

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