Decreasing the length of patent validity solves warming.

So, the question becomes: how can we look to maximize the positive effects of driving research and development while mitigating some of the negative externalities, such as barriers to access for smaller entities and crucial research efforts? Within the existing patent system, some simple, high-level solutions might include lowering royalty rates, upping maintenance fees for the registrant, and limiting the area of registration or the length of the patent’s validity. Lowering royalty rates is helpful in decreasing the barrier to entry for smaller entities, allowing them to access the technology at a lower cost per unit, while simultaneously increasing the maintenance fee for certain applications could be a valuable incentive to help the registrant reconsider exclusivity for a more impactful technology. Limiting the area of registration (several countries’ registration individually vs. 150 countries through the PCT) may allow smaller countries to perform vital research on energy and carbon capture without having to worry as much about exclusivity. Decreasing the length of the validity of the patent would allow for the public domain to access an essential sustainable technology much sooner. In addition to these solutions, Tur-Sinai (2018) suggests that an answer within the patent system for correcting the mismatch between social need and market demand could include “looking beyond IP and increasing the use of other incentive mechanisms, including prizes and research subsidies” and “integrating into innovation policy” measures like command-and-control regulation, cap-and-trade/carbon tax, and better dissemination of information. In reality, the US Patent and Trademark Office (or USPTO) rolled out the Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program last year (2022), detailing quicker vetting of patent applications for “technologies that mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions” (“USPTO Announces Launch of Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program” 2022). Hopefully, the necessity of sustainable technologies, in combination with this pilot program, will mean faster development for renewable tech and an incentive for future development. Aided by necessary considerations of greater access to researchers and countries around the world and in equating market pricing with social value, this pilot program and investment in sustainability by big names like SpaceX, ExxonMobil, and even governments, may lead us to a sustainable and innovative, yet equitable, future across the globe.