The Eco-Patent Commons: Sharing Technology for the Greater Good

Want to know how IBM ships electronics without Styrofoam? Or how Nokia pillages the parts of your old cell phones for use in other electronics devices? The information is now yours for the taking.

In a partnership with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), IBM, Sony, Nokia, and Pitney Bowes are giving away the rights to 31 environmental technology patents to anyone willing to use them.

Inspired by open source movement behind Creative Commons and the Linux OS, the WBCSD and these companies believe that by sharing patents that reduce pollution and waste, they will provide a spawning ground for new collaborations in efficiency and sustainability.

And this is just the beginning of this kind of intellectual property sharing – other corporations with environmental technology are being actively recruited to join the Eco-Patent Commons.

Hear, hear.

Via Bloomberg and Grist

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Absolutely fantastic news
written by weee, January 22, 2008

Well done to all the companies involved - it can't have been very easy getting that level of change.

Great idea - who else is joining?
written by Carl Foner, January 22, 2008

What a great idea. We're all going to need to work together to solve environmental problems, many of them time sensitive. So why make someone else reinvent the wheel when you've already done it?

Does anyone know which other corporations are being actively recruited? It would be great if we could encourage them to join.

...
written by Joel, January 23, 2008

The start of your article is a little misleading. If all we wanted was to know how it was done, the fact that these are patents should have been enough.

After all, that's the whole point of a patent in the first place: Publicize the technology in exchange for a short-term monopoly on business applications.

It's great that we would be allowed to make money on these technologies, of course!

Thank god
written by xodus83, January 23, 2008

The company I work for ordered a large quantity of Dell computers. You would not believe the amount of stire foam and wasted plastic Dell ships out. Of course, some of the plastic was recycled, but Dell has some strange bag that's a stire foam plastic hybrid. It was really disgusting, but at the same time I love the new puters. So hopefully Dell will jump on the board and reduce some of its waste.

yay!
written by kd, January 25, 2008

global community = open source. awesome news!

Sharing IP - A Breakthrough Concept!
written by Ben, January 25, 2008

Sharing intellectual property, such as patents, is a great idea! It will speed up the roll out of similar and related developments WITHIN the patent protection time frame. Once a patent has expired it is available for use by everyone. Time is critical in responding to current problems and healing past damages. This is a positive step. Even though the selection of patents is within the control of the donor companies, it should be encouraged.

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