For the last 20 years, politicians, diplomats, and green
activists alike have assumed that dealing with global warming would
require a
United Nations agreement on the transfer of clean energy technologies
from rich countries to poor ones. But U.S. policymakers and firms
feared that tech transfer was code for tech piracy: China already steals
billions of dollars worth of American intellectual property
annually--from Microsoft Office CDs to Avatar DVDs--so why would we give
away our next generation of solar panels and wind turbines?
"Developing countries, like China and India, see climate change as an opportunity to gain free access to American [intellectual-property rights]," thundered Sen. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., before the Copenhagen talks in 2009, "but far from mitigating climate change, relaxation of IPR would ruin our only hope of responding."
Some business
executives and economists have even argued that nations needed stronger,
not weaker, intellectual-property laws. If China might reverse-engineer
and more cheaply manufacture a breakthrough solar panel or nuclear
plant from the United States, then there would be no point for investors
to spend their money on development in the first place. "Why
would anybody invest in anything that they would have to just give
away?" a General Electric executive asked.
To read the full, original article click on this link: The Revolution Will Not Be Patented - The Climate Report - The Atlantic
