Green Patents That are Free to All: Eco-Patent Commons
September 8th, 2008 by Shirley Siluk Gregory
Some ideas for greening the planet are so-spot on yet so ground-breaking, they make you say, “Of course! Why didn’t anybody think of that sooner?”
That pretty much sums up my reaction upon discovering Eco-Patent Commons.
Launched at the beginning of 2008, Eco-Patent Commons makes available royalty-free, patented technologies for reducing pollution and waste, curbing greenhouse gases and meeting demand for clean, renewable energy. It’s the green-invention equivalent of Wikipedia.
Introduced and hosted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Eco-Patent Commons started out with patents from IBM, Nokia, Pitney Bowes and Sony. And, just this week, three more companies — DuPont, Xerox and Bosch — announced they were joining the effort.
“Innovation to address environmental issues will require both the application of technology as well as new models for sharing intellectual property among companies in different industries,” said John E. Kelly III, IBM senior vice president and director of IBM Research. “In addition to enabling new players to engage in protecting the environment, the free exchange of valuable intellectual property will accelerate work on the next level of environmental challenges.”
Among the patents available so far are a Sony method for recycling optical disks, a Xerox method for cleaning up contaminants and a DuPont technique for breaking down non-recyclable plastics.
You can learn more about Eco-Patent Commons and browse the available technologies at the WBCSD’s Website.
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About the Author
Shirley Siluk Gregory Shirley Siluk Gregory, a transplanted Chicagoan now living in Northwest Florida, represents the progressive half of Green Options' Red, Green and Blue segment. She holds a bachelor's degree in Geological Sciences from Northwestern University but graduated in 1984, just when the market for geologists was flatter than the Florida landscape. Just as well, though: she had little interest in spending her life either in a laboratory or, heaven forbid, an oil field. So, of course, she went into journalism. After extremely low-paying but fun and educational stints at several suburban Chicago weeklies and dailies, Shirley and her then-boyfriend/now-husband Scott found themselves displaced by a media buyout and spending the next several years working as freelancers. Among their credits: The Chicago Tribune, a publication for the manufactured-housing industry, and Web Hosting Magazine, a now-defunct publication that came and went with the dotcom era. Shirley's always been concerned about nature and conservation (and an avid pack-rat, as her family can attest to), but became even more rabidly interested in the environment primarily due to two factors: the growing signs that global warming was real and threatening, and the birth of her son, Noah, in 2003. Suddenly, the prospect of a world that might not be quite as habitable in 40 or 50 years took on a whole new, and personal, meaning. Living where she lives now also helped light the fire of Shirley's environmental awareness: her hometown was severely damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and beaten up again by Hurricane Dennis in 2005. That, and the fact that she and her family were vacationing in New Orleans until the day before Katrina -- and spent 12 hours driving home for a trip that normally takes 3 -- has made Shirley deeply appreciate how fragile our lifestyles are, and how dependent they are on sound management of natural resources and sustainable living practices. That's why she's become a passionate reader and writer about all things green and sustainable.
