[A2k] WSJ: Companies to Share Eco-Friendly Patents

[Judit Rius Sanjuan]

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120027151743287307.html?mod=hps_us_at_glance_technology
Companies to Share Eco-Friendly Patents
By WILLIAM M. BULKELEY
January 14, 2008; Page B2

Multinational companies including International Business Machines <http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&amp;symbol=IBM
 >  Corp., Sony<http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&amp;symbol=sne
 > Corp., Pitney Bowes <http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&amp;symbol=pbi
 >  Inc. and Nokia <http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&amp;symbol=nok
 > Corp. will unveil today what they call a patent-sharing plan for
companies to donate intellectual property that improves the environment.

The project, dubbed the "Eco-Patent Commons," builds on the experience
of the open-source software movement in which programmers around the
world freely share their computer programs, said David Kappos, IBM's
assistant general counsel for patent law, who helped design the
system. He said that "the advantage of using this commons approach is
efficiency, scale and visibility."

The commons will be administered by the World Business Council for
Sustainable Development, a Geneva-based group that includes some 200
of the world's biggest companies.

Intellectual property rights to technology that solves environmental
problems have been a contentious issue in negotiations over the Kyoto
Protocol -- which attempts to combat global warming -- with U.S.
negotiators resisting proposals to force companies to give away
technology. John Coequyt, energy policy specialist with the Washington
office of Greenpeace, an environmental group, said that the commons is
"potentially a way to solve the problem by voluntary action."

The founders of the commons are donating about 30 patents to get it
started. IBM -- which last year won 3,125 U.S. patents, more than any
other company -- is donating several, including one for recyclable
protective-packaging material for delicate electronic parts. Unlike
commonly used foam peanuts, the material can be recycled in the same
waste stream as the cardboard box that contains it.

Nokia is donating a patent for methods of recycling obsolete
cellphones into noncommunicating calculators and personal digital
assistants.

Some of the donated patents aren't directly environmental. Pitney
Bowes, the mailing-systems maker, donated a 1996 patent for a design
that protects electronic scales from being damaged when they are
overloaded. Pitney Bowes says it got out of the scale-making business
several years ago. Angelo Chaclas, deputy general counsel of Pitney
Bowes, said the patent has environmental implications, because "if you
have a technology that extends the life of electronics, you keep it
out of the waste stream." He said that Pitney Bowes, which has a
portfolio of 3,400 patents, was eager to support the commons in hopes
of getting access to other companies' patents that it might be able to
use.

Mr. Kappos of IBM said that any company can join the commons by
contributing a patent. But all patents offered are available to anyone
in the world on a Web site that will be maintained by the World
Business Council.

Mr. Kappos said that while individual patents that are donated may not
be bringing in licensing revenue, or be protecting actual products,
donating them still represents a gift of value. "We're pledging that
we won't assert the patents that are put into the commons against
anyone who is using them in an environmentally friendly way."

Write to William M. Bulkeley at bill.bulkeley@wsj.com

Judit Rius Sanjuan
Attorney at Knowledge Ecology International
www.keionline.org / www.cptech.org
Phone: +1.202.332.2670, x18
Email: judit.rius@keionline.org