Green technology can be free, too. Last week, Bosch, DuPont, Xerox and Sony pledged their 53 patented eco-friendly technologies to Eco-Patent Commons, which is a worldwide initiative to enable companies and individuals to share such technologies free of royalty with potential users in the interest of sustainable development.
For example, Xerox has offered technology that helps separate hazardous waste from water and soil more efficiently and economically. Dupont has gifted technology that converts non-recyclable plastics into fertilisers. While Bosch?s automotive technology turns waste heat from vehicles into useful energy, Sony?s technology helps in recycling optical discs.
The reasons go beyond business. Talking to FE, Brian Lemm, senior corporate counsel, Pitney Bowes Inc and board member of Eco Patent Commons, explained, ?As a founding member of the Eco-Patent Commons, Pitney Bowes has taken a leadership role in spurring sustainable development worldwide and advancing new technologies that have a positive environmental impact.? The Commons is also an opportunity for Pitney Bowes to share patents from its own portfolio that have positive environmental attributes, he adds.
Christine Dittrich, Bosch spokesperson for Asia-Pacific, agrees with him. She told FE, ?The Eco-Patent Commons initiative will promote and accelerate the development of sustainable technologies and processes by making patents freely available that have a positive impact on the environment.?
Eco-Patent Commons was set up earlier this year by Geneva-based World Business Council on Sustainable Development in collaboration with IBM, Nokia, Sony and Pitney Bowes to popularise the use of proven technologies to protect the environment. The founding members had pledged 31 patents in the first round.
The Commons encourages companies to share their environment friendly patents with others free of royalty so that they can use them or adapt them to develop their own technologies. The premise is that companies may like to keep in public domain patents that don?t give them a big competitive advantage, but can offer environmental benefits to a larger community.
Elaborating about the rationale, a Sony spokesperson told FE, ?A company may contribute a patent whose value, in their view, is better realised by the public benefit through the Commons than through traditional patent monetisation. They may want to forgo patent royalties for a particular vital public purpose. They may believe that contributing a patent to the Commons will maximise the opportunity for collaboration and further innovation.? She added, ?It will provide a catalyst for further innovation and can facilitate potential new opportunities for business collaboration.?
Agreeing with him, Lemm of Pitney Bowes also said, ?The Eco-Patent Commons maximises innovation by taking advantage of the diversity of thought and talent in groups of a large size. The Eco-Patent Commons also provides companies with the opportunity to re-evaluate their patent portfolio with a fresh lens to identify patents with direct or indirect environmental benefits.?
Added Dittrich of Bosch, ?We are confident that this will benefit the environment and attract interest accordingly as it can help to introduce the pledger?s technology and vision of the future to the industry and businesses in the industry.?
Individuals or companies can join the Commons by pledging patents.
These technologies may be environmental solutions by themselves or recipes for energy efficiency, emission reduction, optimal usage of natural resources or recycling in manufacturing or business processes. The extent of success of the Commons is still not known since there are no disclosure norms for beneficiaries.