Eco-Patent Commons responds to critics
15 September 2008
Stephen Mulrenan
Participants in the Eco-Patent Commons discussed the initiative and addressed criticisms about how it works at a panel session last week
"I would like to thank the AIPPI for letting us run this advertising campaign under the guise of eco-friendly technology," said George Weyerhauser of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) who moderated a workshop at the AIPPI Congress last week on environmental technology and intellectual property.
The "campaign" in question was for an initiative called Eco-Patent Commons, which was launched in February and aims to promote clean technology.
The fact that the WBCSD should feel the need for some good publicity is telling, as the Eco-Patent Commons initiative has not been without its critics. "Style over substance" is one of the more frequent criticisms, and AIPPI participants were not shy in taking Monday's panel to task.
IBM owns 27 of the Commons' 47 technology patents, and panel member David Kappos from...
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