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Informal Easy, Formal Difficult? Intellectual property Rights - a hot topic

Sara Wolcott | Monday 8th June 2009

Learned Societies in the UK are thriving off of networking with Learning Societies in Africa - such as the Royal Society of Astronomy linking with African Astronomers, sharing books, teaching, resources, and bottom-up innovative knowledge. But at the same time, the debate rages on about how much the North will transfer Green Technologies to the South - for free, regardless of patent issues. Both of these require transferring knowledge for the benefit of mankind and mutual learning; but, not surprisingly, the formal, money-backed knowledge-transfers are ignoring UNFCCC international agreements and insisting on intellectual property rights (IPRs) leading the way.

It's a big issue. What is the role of intellectual property rights in green technology - when the future of the planet is at stake? Under certain international treaties, governments have to give up these life-saving IPRs. For the sake of the planet, you'd think they might be willing to do so. But the fight continues. And full fledged legal battles might ensue - not pretty. Hopefully not; hopefully co-operation can lead the way. Sustainable Development needs it to.

As we all follow the debates leading up to Copenhagen, the role of IPRs - especially as more and more big businesses go green - will probably continue to be a hot-going-towards-burning topic.

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