Green Technology and International Patents: Incentivizing Innovation or Blocking Access?

Authors

• Matteo Rizzi

First Page

640

Abstract

As the global climate crisis intensifies, the transition to clean energy technologies has become an urgent priority for the world's largest carbon dioxide emitters: China, the United States, and India. This Note examines how patent law can serve as a critical instrument in accelerating that transition. The patent system’s core quid pro quo grants inventors exclusive rights in exchange for public disclosure, creating powerful incentives for innovation. Yet the law’s failure to require active use of patented technologies has enabled a range of anticompetitive behaviors, including patent trolling, patent warehousing, and the accumulation of dormant patent portfolios, that allow proprietary rights to block rather than foster the rapid deployment of clean energy technologies. Drawing on a comparative analysis of green technology patent acceleration programs in the United States and China, and the absence of such a program in India, this Note demonstrates that permanent, technology-specific acceleration programs correlate strongly with increased green patent filings and real-world clean energy growth. This Note proposes a two-pronged policy solution. First, it argues that China should continue, the United States should reimplement, and India should adopt permanent green technology patent acceleration programs. Second, it contends that these programs should be linked to a binding implementation requirement, conditioning accelerated examination on a commitment to actively deploy the patented technology within a defined period. This framework draws on the longstanding legal principle of incentivizing use over passive ownership, reflected in doctrines ranging from adverse possession to compulsory licensing, and operates comfortably within the flexibility that the TRIPS Agreement affords member nations. Together, these reforms offer a legally sound mechanism for converting intellectual property policy into climate policy.

Recommended Citation

Matteo Rizzi, Green Technology and International Patents: Incentivizing Innovation or Blocking Access?, 51 Brook. J. Int'l L. 640 (2026).
Available at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/bjil/vol51/iss2/8