As world leaders prepare for climate talks in Copenhagen next month, developing nations have tabled a controversial proposal which would effectively end patent protection for clean technologies.

China and India have floated the idea of making new green technology subject to ’compulsory licensing’, which critics say amounts to waiving intellectual property rights.

The idea of adapting or liberalising patent rules for crucial new inventions which can help reduce carbon emissions is not new, but the EU and US are unhappy with compulsory licensing, fearing it would dramatically reduce the incentive for businesses to innovate and stifle green job creation.

Compulsory licensing has to date only been used in emergency situations where patent-protected pharmaceuticals were seen as prohibitively expensive. The Thai government used the mechanism to allow local medicines factories produce HIV drugs at a fraction of the cost.

Now, the group of 77 developing nations, led de facto by China, wants to apply the same logic to the climate crisis.

The Coalition for Innovation, Employment and Development (CIED), a think-tank strongly in favour of intellectual property rights, has published a report highlighting the threat to European industry posed by ending patent protection on clean technologies. 
                                                                                               Source: euractiv.com