Policy Wise

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According to this AP story, companies are being asked to donate unused patents to spur entrepreneurship. I had heard from a friend in IBM about large number of patents remaining unused, but the figure of 90-95% sounds startling. Of course, one must realize that all patents do not have the equal potential of developing into a successful commercial venture.

Dilip Kotecha figured his working days were over when he retired from the food-manufacturing industry. But after an unused patent for instant yogurt landed in his lap, he couldn’t resist turning the dormant technology into a business.

Countless patents — including the one used to start up Kotecha’s company, Yokit — sit unused when companies decide not to develop them into products. Now, not-for-profit groups and state governments are asking companies to donate dormant patents so they can be passed to local entrepreneurs who try to build businesses out of them.

Kotecha’s patent covered the formulation of instant yogurt. Consumer-products company SC Johnson of Racine, Wis., was awarded it in 1984 but tabled its plans. Instead of gathering dust, the donated patent spawned a startup that Kotecha hopes will revolutionize the vending-machine industry and provide snacks to troops overseas.

There are countless other patents that are promising but sitting idle, business developers say.

In fact, about 90 percent to 95 percent of all patents are idle, according to Ron Sampson, the secretary of the not-for-profit National Institute for Strategic Technology Acquisition and Commercialization in Manhattan, Kan.

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