It might be a heretical idea for readers of this magazine, but law professor Jason Schultz says that many innovators don’t want to patent their creations. He says that they tell him, “ ’I get threatened by patents, why would I want to participate in this system?’ ” But Schultz and Jennifer Urban, both professors at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, have come up with what they think is a solution.
The two have developed what they call the Defensive Patent License (DPL), a standardized license that innovators could obtain online. The key feature: Anyone who takes out a DPL for their invention agrees not to sue anyone else who does the same. The aim is to create a network of inventors who’ve all pledged not to sue each other. The DPL is more likely to attract newcomers and start-ups, Schultz says, because established companies are less likely to promote the sharing of IP.
