IP Strategy Options for Emerging Technologies in the Low‐Carbon Energy Space

摘要

For technology‐based companies patents are a particularly important part of their IP asset base.Private and Public Investment in Low‐Carbon Energy Technology continues to grow at a rapid paceas new consortiums, research alliances, venture capital, private equity and technology innovationstart‐ups are established. Recently the role of Intellectual Property (IP) in Low‐Carbon Solutions,commercialization has gained an unusual prominence in the media. Investments by petrochemicalcompanies in novel biofuel processes (backed by strong patent portfolios) have attracted manyheadlines. Public policy debates in the run‐up to the Copenhagen Climate Change summit also sawthe role of patents take front stage. But beyond the headlines, how important is IP in the low‐carbonenergy future? And on a practical level: how can entrepreneurs and company executives maximisethe benefit from their patent portfolios and use it to support business objectives? What are theproven IP strategies that can be adopted from other industries to support innovation in the lowcarbonenergy space?We provide some insights from patent landscaping and interviews with key industry stakeholdersconducted in 2008‐9 in clean technology, as well as some suggested implications for Corporate andstartup R&D and IP strategies. We begin by overviewing some of the IP strategy challenges alreadyfaced by technology companies in the low‐carbon energy space: including in solar photovoltaic,biomass, biofuels and carbon capture and storage (CCS). Many of these issues are ‘imported’ fromother industries. For instance in the biofuels space past controversy around standards in fuelproduction may make the application of future standards for biofuels more difficult to implement;while a migration of litigation trends from the biotech into the biofuels space may also make thescaling up of biofuels production more difficult. We therefore turn next to examples of differentstrategies pursued by individual companies and industries as a whole around how patents are usedin the industry’s value chain. We examine how technology standards bodies have worked intelecoms and utility metering; and cross‐licensing agreements in semi‐conductors. We conclude byproviding some early examples of emerging standards in the low‐carbon energy space, and discusspotential scenarios in areas of interest to the AICHE community.