Intellectual property rights ensure competitiveness, but do they hinder progress? In terms of green IT, it depends on who you ask.

Coinciding with Copenhagen climate talks, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., introduced a bill on Thursday calling for the protection of intellectual property rights for clean energy and environmental technology in any global climate change agreement.

As of this blog post, full text of the bill was not available on the Internet, but apparently it complements similar bipartisan language included in the House Foreign Relations Authorization Act (HR 2410), which passed this summer.

Mark Esper, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber's Global Intellectual Property Center had this to say in a statement released today:

New inventions and processes will not only help address climate change, but will also lead to job growth and economic expansion...

Measure Coincides with Copenhagen Negotiations; Complements Similar Language Passed by House Calling for IP Protection

WASHINGTON, D.C.—As the climate change summit in Copenhagen continues this week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce commended Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) for introducing legislation today calling for the protection of intellectual property (IP) rights for clean energy and environmental technology in any global climate change agreement.

“Senator Gillibrand should be commended for introducing this resolution that recognizes the importance of intellectual property in the development of green technologies,” said Dr. Mark Esper, executive vice president of the U.S.

Buried throughout the text of a climate change bill that Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry introduced this month are no fewer than 17 references to U.S. companies’ intellectual property rights and the necessity of protecting them.

It’s a testament to the low-profile, highly complicated and perhaps unlikely role that patent law is playing as U.S. negotiators in Copenhagen and lawmakers back in the House and Senate try to negotiate a global climate deal and a U.S. emissions cap.

Many developing countries, including China, have argued that if they agree to cap carbon emissions, they should get access to the kind of technology that rich countries have had a head start in developing.

As they attempt to construe solutions that will halt global warming, heads of state and government should resist the temptation to attack the legislation in place on intellectual property, writes Mark Esper, executive vice-president of the US Chamber's Global Intellectual Property Center, in a December post.

"As the world gathers over the next two weeks in Copenhagen to reach consensus on how to address our climate change challenges, a bevy of 'other' issues – all related in some way to climate change – will be taken up.

COP-15 has poor countries seeking to unlock intellectual property rights on climate innovations.

Developing countries, including China and India, have a proposal on the table at the Copenhagen climate change conference COP-15 that will liberalise global intellectual property rights for new innovations designed to reduce carbon emissions: This is according to universityworldnews.com.

The 77 governments behind the proposal hope that green technology can be subject to 'compulsory licensing’ in the same way as generic medicines, so that it can be produced cheaply in poorer countries, without infringing intellectual property rights.

Critics from universities around the world are concerned that green innovation may be stifled if the proposal is passed.

Should be like medicine

John Vaughn, Executive Vice-president for the Association of American Universities, says he hopes the same compromises made for medicine can be applied to the

Global leaders settle in this week to negotiate a climate agreement in Copenhagen at the U.N. summit that the vice-president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's intellectual property center has called "the [Intellectual Property] battle of the year." Meanwhile, the Obama Administration has taken a step that could have more immediate implications for startups hoping to finance and grow businesses based on proprietary green technology: Some 3,000 applications for patents on clean technologies will be fast-tracked through the U.S.

New Delhi: Clean technologies have the potential to generate 10 million jobs in India by 2025 if a strong intellectual property system is preserved, says a new report.

Looking at the growth of Indian economy and energy consumption in the country, the report says green technologies will have a key role to play in an evolving climate-friendly world. Since solar, biofuel, nuclear, wind, hydrogen, thermal and hydroelectric power sources are driven by strong property rights, the report argues for the government to undertake a prominent role in the protection of clean technology innovation rights, particularly since the country is home to leading companies like Suzlon, Tata BP Solar and Moser Baer PV Technologies.

Intellectual property rights are a key to innovation, the mitigation of climate change, an incentive to spur the economy and a creator of jobs, according to participants in several recent industry events and activities.

On the threshold of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Copenhagen in December, intellectual property rights remain an important issue. Industry groups have launched a campaign with the message that IP rights - patents in particular - are essential to incentivise technological innovation to save the world. But others say patenting of environmental technologies could impact technology transfer to developing countries and the availability of those technologies (IPW, Environment, 16 September 2009).

The House voted overwhelmingly late Wednesday to establish new U.S. policy in opposition to any global climate change treaty that weakens the intellectual property rights of American green technology as part of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act. The vote comes as diplomats prepare for December negotiations as part of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. "American innovations in clean energy technology create good-paying jobs today and will fuel our country's economic growth in the future," said Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., who offered the amendment with Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill. Kirk, a member of the U.S. delegation to Kyoto in 1997, emphasized that jobs will not be created if foreign competitors are allowed to seize U.S. inventions.