Open Innovation for Sustainability

A web-based marketplace for intellectual property, the GreenXchange (GX) platform was founded on the belief that open innovation can play a key role in promoting sustainability in business practices. This policy brief represents the first effort to analyze the main features of the GX and to explore lessons that can be drawn from its experience thus far in terms of the broader thinking on innovation, intellectual property, and sustainability. The brief focuses particularly on how the GX exemplifies both the usefulness and limitations of open innovation for sustainability. It also suggests a number of ways to improve similar efforts through:
a) further education and awareness raising about IP exchanges;
b) an increase in resources dedicated to these exchanges;
c) a move away from simply focusing on the legal exchange of patents and towards increased collaboration between innovators.
(ictsd.org)