Green Tech’s Big Patent Problem

You may remember the battle that raged between pharmaceutical companies who wanted to hold on to their patents and African nations who couldn’t afford the non-generic price tag on the AIDS drugs that would help their dying populations. A similar problem is brewing over green energy technologies: developing countries are demanding that the U.S. waive its patents on clean energy technologies so they can afford to cut their carbon emissions, and the U.S. is saying no way. According to a forthcoming article in The Yale Law Review, the situation benefits no one and is easily remedied.