Innovation Beyond patents
Traditional vs Newer Organisations
2 Aug 2025
2 Aug 2025
When people think about technology commercialization, the traditional path often goes like this:
Invent → Patent → Protect → Monetize.
But what if this model, while effective in certain contexts, is also limiting the real impact innovation can make on society?
Over the past 15 years, a growing global movement has emerged—one that emphasizes collaboration over exclusivity, sharing over hoarding, and societal impact over short-term gain. It’s a shift toward open innovation—and it’s producing some of the most impactful tech outcomes we’ve seen.
Here are some powerful real-world case studies and commercialization models that demonstrate how technologies can be scaled without relying on patents or proprietary IP—and instead through ecosystem collaboration, open-source development, and shared purpose.
Software: Linux, Android, TensorFlow, and React are open-source projects powering most of the digital world today. By removing IP barriers, these projects have allowed global contributors to build on them, accelerating adoption and innovation.
Hardware: Arduino and RepRap helped democratize electronics and 3D printing. These platforms invited hobbyists, educators, and startups to experiment—without licensing fees.
Agriculture: The Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) allows plant breeders to share crop varieties under a pledge of non-restriction—encouraging biodiversity and farmer autonomy.
Tesla (2014) opened its EV patents to competitors, with the goal of accelerating EV adoption industry-wide.
Toyota (2015) followed suit with hydrogen fuel cell patents, removing roadblocks for clean energy adoption.
During COVID-19, tech leaders like IBM, Facebook, and Microsoft joined the Open COVID Pledge, allowing use of relevant patents for pandemic solutions.
The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) licenses HIV, hepatitis, and COVID-related drug patents to generics in developing countries.
It has supplied billions of doses, saved thousands of lives, and reduced healthcare costs by billions of dollars—without excluding originators from core markets.
Universities like Glasgow, King’s College London, and UNSW Sydney pioneered giving away selected IP for free to entrepreneurs and companies.
The rationale: better to see knowledge used than idle, especially if it won’t be licensed traditionally.
Projects like Open Source Malaria brought global contributors together under a “no patents” rule to accelerate neglected drug discovery.
NASA, XPRIZE, and global DIY groups launched open design challenges to solve urgent problems—from ventilators to clean energy devices.
Societal impact first. Value creation precedes value capture.
Ecosystem thinking. Innovation doesn’t happen in isolation—it’s collective.
Trust-based IP strategy. Loosening control can actually strengthen leadership and adoption.
Revenue as a byproduct. Tesla still leads in EVs, not because it protected its patents, but because it led the standard.
In a world facing complex global challenges—from climate change to digital inclusion—exclusive control over ideas may be the bottleneck, not the solution.
What if, instead, we built commons?
What if we led with collaboration, not competition?
What if the true ROI of innovation was measured in human outcomes, not just profit margins?
The organizations that embrace this mindset are not giving away value—they are amplifying it. For all.