Energy, Cleantech, and Intellectual Property: Managing Technology Convergence and Protecting Innovation

WHITE PAPER

By: Michael J. Pomianek and Joseph Teja, Jr.

While intellectual property (IP) is always an important component to the success of any technology-based company, it is arguably especially important for “cleantech” ventures directed to energy and/or environmentally-related technologies. Cleantech is a broad field with several narrow subsectors - the technologies embraced run the gamut from older technologies that have been around for several years, in some instances already in the public domain and now being recycled, to cutting-edge research coming out of academic and industry labs. Some of the innovations involve fundamental technology breakthroughs that may warrant broad protection. In other cases, however, an incremental and seemingly narrow improvement in an already crowded area of development may provide an important enabling solution having significant commercial value.

In any of these scenarios, IP has important roles to play. With the relatively recent re-emergence and explosion of cleantech, and with so much still in flux, we believe that no proven thesis has yet evolved for “Cleantech Best IP Practices.” Moreover, the diversity of the technologies, IP landscape and market conditions involved is not conducive to a one-size-fits-all approach. However, there are some significant issues that are characteristic of many cleantech efforts and that generally set this space apart from other technology sectors. By exploring these cleantech-specific issues and asking how they may impact IP strategy, we can gain valuable insight toward building a comprehensive and multi-faceted model for addressing cleantech IP.