Abstract The article explores how patent law can play a key role in addressing climate change. Since incentivizing the development of green technologies by intervening in upstream patentability requirements or procedures, or in the scope of patent rights, proves challenging, an alternative lies in facilitating the dissemination of patented eco-innovations. From this perspective, compulsory licensing may not be an optimal solution due to the complexity of green technologies. Instead, the right balance between innovation incentives and broader accessibility could be achieved through the regulatory recognition of certain patents as essential environmental standards. Indeed, eco-standardization, also encouraged by recent developments in European antitrust law, enables pro-competitive solutions to interoperability issues while simultaneously facilitating access through fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms.
Matteo Zampella (Fri,) studied this question.