"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 IBM responded to one suggestion from the floor that contributors, such as the multinational computer and consulting company as well as the likes of Xerox, Nokia, Pitney Bowes and Dupont, were not pledging their bread-and-butter patents.

"There is no requirement to pledge bread-and-butter patents," said Kappos. "For example, we have many pharmaceutical clients and we want them to meet their business goals. But I see no dearth in innovation by pharmaceutical companies in areas outside of bread-and-butter."

Donal O'Connell of Nokia House added: "It is up to each company within the Eco-Patent Commons as to which patents they pledge. But while they may not be bread-and-butter patents, they must have held some value to us otherwise we would not have patented them in the first place."

The Eco-Patent Commons will create a collection of patents on technology that directly or indirectly protects the environment. The patents are pledged by companies and other IP owners and made available to anyone free of charge. The aim is for the Commons to become a resource connecting those who have had success with a particular challenge in a way that benefits the environment and those who are facing similar challenges.

The premise of the Commons is that "sharing environmental patents can help others become more eco-efficient and operate in a more environmentally sustainable manner - enabling technology innovation to meet social innovation."

And while the Commons does not have statistics on the beneficiaries of pledged patents, O'Connell said it was proving a success. "We want these ideas contained in the patents to be freely available to anybody. We've more than doubled the number of patents pledged since the formation of the Eco-Patent Commons. There are more companies involved and a number of discussions have taken place with other interested companies."

Kappos added: "The Eco-Patent Commons cannot solve world hunger. The way out of this problem is going to take decades and decades of serious innovation. You've got to come up with creative ways of finding how IP rights can drive innovation."

Both Kappos and O'Donnell were against an idea suggested by the floor of government authorities stepping in and enforcing the licensing of a company's patents.

"I feel that would be very dangerous," said Kappos. "It certainly isn't part of the Eco-Patent Commons nor should we be encouraging our governments to undertake it."

O'Connell agreed. "If you come up with a blunt instrument, you might discourage this area," he said. "So you should be very careful."

Joining Kappos and O'Donnell on the panel was Masahiro Ezaki from Toyota Technical Development Corporation. Toyota is a market leader in the area of environmentally friendly cars, with its Prius Hybrid vehicle, and one idea being discussed in Japan at the moment is the pooling of eco-patents.

"But there will be other companies that will take the view that if you are going to use our technology, you will have to pay for it," said Allen & Overy partner and fellow panellist Ken Rivlin.

Further reports from the Congress available in the AIPPI Congress News , which can be downloaded from http://www.managingip.com .

September's special Green Issue of Managing IP includes an article looking at patenting green technologies, and the role of the Eco-Patent Commons.