Announcement - American University Assumes Stewardship of the Low-Carbon Patent Pledge
August 4, 2021
The Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) at American University Washington College of Law is pleased to announce that effective August 4th, 2021, it has assumed stewardship of the Low-Carbon Patent Pledge (lowcarbonpatentpledge.org). PIJIP is hosting the pledge in partnership with the Program on Intellectual Property Law and Policy at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. Helios IP is endorsing the Low-Carbon Patent Pledge and provides their IP Tools solution for visitors to view details of the pledged patents.
The Low-Carbon Patent Pledge was launched on Earth Day, April 22, 2021 by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Microsoft, and Facebook. The Pledge comes amid warnings from the global scientific community that breakthrough technologies will be vital to cutting emissions fast enough to avert climate disaster. Roughly half the reductions needed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 require technologies that are not yet commercially available, according to the International Energy Agency. The World Economic Forum is supporting the Pledge as it demonstrates the role of technology and innovation in pursuit of sustainability and net zero goals.
More than 400 patents have been pledged so far. The list of patents and other details are available at lowcarbonpatentpledge.org. The pledge is designed to grow as companies add more patents and more companies from different industries make the pledge.
About the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University Washington College of Law
The Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property is a public Interest intellectual property program at the American University Washington College of Law. Initiated by Senior Policy Fellow Jorge Contreras in 2013, PIJIP also hosts an ongoing project on patent pledges, including a public database of pledges. In addition to Contreras, the Open Innovation Project at PIJIP is managed by Meredith Jacob, PIJIP’s Project Director for Copyright and Open Licensing.