Hall B.H., Helmers C. 2011.
Innovation and diffusion of clean/green technology: Can patent commons help?
National Bureau for Economic Research. Working Paper No.16920, p. 1-48
This paper explores the characteristics of 238 patents on 94 "inventions” contributed by major multinational innovators to the "Eco-Patent Commons”, which provides royalty free access to third parties to patented climate change related innovations. By comparing the pledged patents to other patents in the same technologies or held by the same multinationals, we investigate the motives of the contributing firms as well as the potential for such commons to encourage innovation and diffusion of climate change related technologies. This study, therefore, indirectly provides evidence on the role of patents in the development and diffusion of green technologies. More generally, the paper sheds light on the performance of hybrid forms of knowledge management that combine open innovation and patenting.
Eco Commons - Hall Helmers
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The patent commons is one of the forms of corporate
social responsibility that allows some commons (usually composeed of several companies)
to create special conditions for its members to use patented and, in general
case, non-patented technologies. By forming some patent commons, its members (and
non-members) obtain free access to patents pledged by others, simultaneously with the
opportunity to leverage this commons for its expansion, innovative and business
development.
For comparison, see also about the patent pools, for example, by David Serafino, 2007.
Currently, the most known green patent commons are the
Eco-Patent Commons (Eco-PC), GreenXchange (GX),
Biological Open Source (BiOS) and some others.
Hall & Helmers (2011) discuss the
advantages and disadvantages of green patent commons on an example of the
Eco-Patent Commons. Matthew Rimmer (2011) does the same on the examples of the Eco-Patent Commons and GreenXchange, with their
comparison.
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 Members of the WiMAX ecosystem have formed the Open Patent Alliance (OPA) in
June 2008 with the primarygoal to foster global tools that
will help ensure successful and broad adoptions of 4G wireless. The
OPA accomplishes this goal by creating the fair, transparent and
balanced IPR licensing structure (patent pool) to accelerate the global adoption of
WiMAX, simultaneously fostering broader choice and lowering costs
for WiMAX technologies.Current OPA members include
Acer, Alvarion, Cisco, Clearwire, Huawei Technologies, Intel
Corporation and Samsung Electronics as well as newly announced
associate members Beceem, GCT Semiconductor, Sequans and UQ
Communications.
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The Biological Open Source (BiOS) Initiative is fundamentally an effort to develop new innovation
ecosystemsfor disadvantaged communities and neglected priorities.The BiOS Initiative uses the communications toolsof the Internet and open
source to generate open access to capabilities for innovation.The BiOS is the legally enforceable framework to enable
the sharing of the capability to use patented and non-patented technology, which
may include materials and methods, within dynamically expanding group of those
who all agree to the same principles of responsible sharing. 
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