Guest Post by Stephanie Wolcott
Mary Tripsas from Harvard Business School recently reported in the New York Times on two new online platforms for sharing eco-friendly technology: the Eco-Patent Commons provides environmental patents to anyone for free; The Green Xchange, which launches in 2010, will facilitate licensing of patents to non-competitors. While it remains to be seen whether either of these models will work, the underlying concept—that environmental technologies are ripe for collective problem solving—is clearly true.
The Eco-Patent Commons model is akin to the open-source software movement. Companies may benefit indirectly by building communities around technologies that are not strategic for them but could provide insight and channels into new business areas, to the extent that users contact them (or even pay for support). Participation can build a company’s brand as a “green innovator.” The question is whether the approach will lose steam after the initial media attention has gone away. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, which hosts the database, may have to find a way to make it more directly appealing for companies to post their patents, such a providing a tracking mechanism or requiring acknowledgement of usage; for instance, “Brought to you by the Eco-Patent Commons by….”
The Green Xchange takes a more traditional approach of brokering paid licensing, providing innovative companies with a potential new revenue stream. “We don’t depend on altruism,” said the Green Exchange’s coordinator, John Wilbanks. Tripsas suggests that “the biggest upside of Green Xchange may come from the development of communities that collaborate in innovation and the exchange of ideas.” Such business ecosystem building is left more to chance in the Eco-Patent Commons model, but at the same time the potential network is opened to a much broader set of participants, such as non-profit and academic institutions that may not be in a position to pay for licenses. The legal aspects of patent licensing are also simplified.
It will be interesting to see which model is more effective. In the race against climate change, perhaps the answer is, we’ll need both types of collective problem solving; that is, business models built less on competition than on open innovation towards a common good. What do you think?
Read Tripsas’ Article
Visit the Eco-Patent Commons
Visit the Green Xchange
Stephanie Wolcott is Content Director for KIN Global and a Corporate Social Responsiblity Consultant
