Haynes and Boone's Newsroom
Paul Dickerson in the San Francisco Chronicle: Don't give away clean tech's future
12/10/2009
With venture capitalist Robert Nelsen, Paul Dickerson writes about the dangers of creating exceptions to intellectual property laws in order to boost clean tech innovations.
American innovators across the country rejoiced this week when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced a pilot program to fast-track its review of "green" technology patents. The new system is expected to shave about 12 months off of reviews that now take about 40 months. Such delays have put the kibosh on many companies' expansion plans, as their leaders wait to find out whether their technologies will be protected in the open market.
While this is a positive development in America's efforts to claim a leadership role in the global clean energy race, what happens over the next two weeks at the Copenhagen climate change talks could be even more important.
One of the key issues delegates are addressing is how poorer developing nations will get access to solar panels, low-carbon biofuels, wind turbines and other clean technologies that are often priced beyond these countries' means.
One of the proposed solutions is to force clean-tech companies to give away their products and services through compulsory patent pools or other exceptions to intellectual property protections.
We believe that such exclusions from intellectual property protections would have exactly the opposite effect.
This article has been excerpted from the San Francisco Chronicle.
To view the full text, click here.