Patent Law

Negotiating the Global Environment on Independence Day

By Les Weinstein, Michael Young, John Leo Wagner, Eric van Ginkel, and Victoria Pynchon

(image from Lift Think)

On this Independence Day celebrating U.S. freedom from the tyranny of foreign rule, I'd like us to consider whether a new day might be added to our holiday calendar -- Global Inter-dependence Day.  This thought is spurred by the New York Times' Green, Inc. Blog post Climate Change and Intellectual Property.

In his Monday post here at Green Inc., James Kanter wondered what it would take to get the developing world to sign a climate change deal. Besides cash, some suggest that any accord must ensure developing countries have access to the proprietary mitigation technologies — that is, the intellectual property that companies in the developed world are creating to fight global warming — at bargain basement prices.

For instance, Nicholas Stern's proposed 'global deal' includes the following quid pro quo: 'In return for increased R.&D. funding or extended developed-world I.P. protection, obligations could be imposed on developed-world technology providers that new technology be made available to the developing world on a marginal cost basis, or for some reduced license fee.'

For both the pro's and the con's, read on here.

Full post as published by IP ADR Blog on July 04, 2009 (boomark / email).