Dow and Fuji Xerox Join Eco-Patent Commons

The Dow Chemical Company and Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. have joined the Eco-Patent Commons, a business effort coordinated by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) to help the environment by pledging environmentally beneficial patents to the public domain. The two companies have pledged several patents that cover technologies for more efficient production of olefins, wastewater treatment, and magnetic refrigeration.

Key Takeaways:

• The Dow Chemical Company and Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. have joined the Eco-Patent Commons, a business effort coordinated by the WBCSD to help the environment by pledging environmentally beneficial patents to the public domain.
• Dow has pledged two patents that describe catalysts for the dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons, which can increase catalyst lifetimes and reduce the frequency of catalyst replacement.
• Fuji Xerox has pledged two patents that cover wastewater treatment processes that enable efficient treatment of wastewater discharged from factories.
• Xerox Corporation has pledged an additional patent that covers technology that makes magnetic refrigeration less harmful to the environment by eliminating the need for ozone-depleting refrigerants and energy-consuming compressors.
• Eleven companies, representing a variety of industries worldwide, have publicly shared innovation through the Eco-Patent Commons since its launch in January 2008.
• Membership in the Eco-Patent Commons is open to all individuals and companies willing to pledge their patents.
• The selected and submitted patents for pledging are at the organization's discretion, and member companies invite other interested companies to become members and participate in this initiative promoting innovation and collaboration to help protect the planet.

Statistics:

• Dow is a diversified chemical company with annual sales of $57.5 billion in 2008 and approximately 46,000 employees worldwide.
• Fuji Xerox is a 75/25 joint venture between FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation and Xerox Corporation, providing document management systems throughout Japan and Asia Pacific regions and designs and manufactures multifunction devices and color printing systems for Xerox worldwide.
• The Eco-Patent Commons has grown to include 12 member companies since its launch in January 2008, with pledged patents covering areas such as energy efficiency, conservation, waste reduction, and recycling.
• The WBCSD has a global network of approximately 60 national and regional business councils and partner organizations.

Sources:

• M2 PRESSWIRE
• The Dow Chemical Company
• Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
• The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
• Xerox Corporation