Donation of Ricoh and Taisei Designs to World Commons Brings Total Close to 100 Eco-Friendly Pledged Patents

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) announced on March 23, 2009, that the Eco-Patent Commons was recently joined by Ricoh Co., a major business equipment manufacturer, and Taisei Corp., a leading engineering construction company. The Eco-Patent Commons, launched by the WBCSD and four companies in January 2008, is a common resource of design patents pledged to the public domain, so that anyone wanting to protect the environment can have open access to the environment-friendly technologies.

The donors participating in the Eco-Patent Commons initiative currently include nine world-class companies representing a variety of business fields, with Sony, IBM Nokia, and Pitney Bowes as the four founding members; Bosch, DuPont, and Xerox as additional members since September 2008; and Ricoh and Taisei as the newcomers. Nearly 100 eco-friendly patents have been pledged so far, some of which have already been utilized in practice.

Ricoh pledged a patent that effectively reduces the waste involved with removable cartridges for devices such as copy machines and printers. Taisei pledged two patents, one that provides a solution to improve water quality by using special concrete blocks in rivers and lakes under development. The other patent offers a water purification technology that effectively circulates water in shallow waters such as lakes and reservoirs. (More information on the Eco-Patent Commons is available at the following website.)

Sony and Others Go Open with Patents on Environmental Technologies (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/027027.html
Ricoh and Taisei Join Eco-Patent Commons, DuPont Contributes Additional Eco-friendly Patents
http://www.wbcsd.org/Plugins/DocSearch/
details.asp?DocTypeId=251&ObjectId=MzM3ODM

Posted: 2009/07/01 06:00:15 AM