Business groups join to protect 'green tech' IP rights
A coalition backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, major U.S. firms and possibly organized labor plans to launch an effort next month to influence U.S. government policy as negotiators prepare for United Nations climate-change talks this summer. The group will focus on protecting the patents of green technology manufacturers, who fear certain countries will push for compulsory licensing carve-outs for alternative energy innovations.
Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will meet in Copenhagen in December to reach an international agreement on how to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. A 2007 action plan for UNFCCC encouraged parties to "avoid trade and intellectual property rights policies, or lack thereof, restricting transfer of technology," but it did not offer a common definition of what technology transfer is or what form it must take.
Countries such as China and India have indicated interest in exemptions that would let them piggyback on the achievements of U.S. companies without adequate compensation, according to Mark Esper, executive vice president of the Chamber's Global Intellectual Property Center. Multinationals like General Electric and Siemens are already investing hundreds of millions of dollars to develop wind turbines, solar panels and other technologies to address climate change. Those products, which are engineered and manufactured in the United States, can then be sold and licensed overseas.
President Obama has said he wants to create 5 million U.S. jobs through green technology and called for an 80 percent emissions reduction in greenhouse gas by 2050. To that end, Obama wants 10 percent of the nation's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2012 and 25 percent by 2025. Much of that would be achieved through high-tech advancements.
"If the administration's negotiators do not protect [intellectual property], Obama's vision is going to be shot," a Chamber official warned. Business leaders have already flagged the intellectual property issue for the State Department, but negotiators are largely focused on the big picture of emissions reduction.
"We want to put this on their radar screens as they move forward," Esper said. A State Department spokesman said protection might come up April 27, during one of many climate-change meetings preceding Copenhagen. The coalition will join efforts underway by the Chamber and firms like GE to educate lawmakers and administration officials.
House Global Warming ranking member James Sensenbrenner has already weighed in with a letter to Energy Secretary Chu, seeking clarification of the administration's position on intellectual property rights and energy technology. Chu is said to express an interest in sharing IP "as much as possible," said Sensenbrenner, but he added there would be no technologies to share with developing nations if U.S. intellectual property is not protected.
The Chamber hopes to articulate its position during Earth Day and World IP Day, both of which are observed this week, as well as at a transatlantic piracy and counterfeiting summit it is hosting later this month.