Has anyone given away their patent "for the betterment of mankind"?

[Frederick Skelly]

The world has been nuts lately. The news always seems to get worse. So how about a thread about people helping others? The sawstop licencing thread got me wondering. Do any of you have examples where a person or company literally gave away a valuable patent to better the world? For example, a drug company that decided to make its patent available to everyone to help lower the cost of a particular treatment?

Fred

[Mel Fulks]

Only one I can think of right off is Dr. Salk.

[Robert LaPlaca]

Well one that comes to mind is Volvo, they gave away the patent for the three point safety belt..Volvo felt the patent was too important for the good of mankind. Kind of cool really, but It never enticed me to purchase a Volvo..

[Jason Beam]

Pretty sure Nikola Tesla -- though, i may be repeating internet folklore, there.

[Mike Henderson]

While not a patent, Google has given away quite a bit of software, Android being the most notable. Of course, there's a reason they want other companies to use their software.

I'm heard of companies who license their patent for very little or nothing. But you still have to sign an agreement with them. There are other restrictions on the use of the patented material, even if you don't pay for it. Often they do that to help make their technology the de facto "standard".

Also, many customers will not purchase a product unless there's a "second source". Once a chip (for example) is designed into a product it's expensive to switch to another chip and go through the testing and certification again. So the company holding the patent will often license another company (sometimes at little or no cost) to make the same chip and provide a "second source".

Mike

[Ryan Mooney]

More recently: http://www.forbes.com/sites/investor...s-makes-sense/
Lines up somewhat with Mike's comment on making things the de-facto standard.

[Mike Henderson]

More recently: http://www.forbes.com/sites/investor...s-makes-sense/
Lines up somewhat with Mike's comment on making things the de-facto standard.

I would not be surprised if one requirement of Tesla's grant of their patents is that you cannot then turn around and assert your patents against them.

Mike

[Ryan Mooney]

I would not be surprised if one requirement of Tesla's grant of their patents is that you cannot then turn around and assert your patents against them.

Mike

You may well be correct..
“Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology,” Musk wrote in a post entitled “All Our Patent Are Belong to You,”
https://gigaom.com/2014/06/14/what-e...eslas-patents/

Also its worth noting that they didn't open ALL their patents, I'd bet a small amount that the remaining ones would offer some juicy licensing opportunities especially given Tesla's move into large scale battery manufacturing..

Interesting link from that article: http://www.google.com/patents/opnple...toc-conferment "Google is therefore pledging the free use of certain of its patents in connection with Free or Open Source Software on the following terms: ... <pages of legalese I don't fully understand>"

More apropos to your assertion - this is certainly what some tech companies have decided to do.
https://gigaom.com/2012/04/17/twitte...ors-agreement/ "Under the terms of the agreement, Twitter will promise to only use the patents for defensive purposes — asserting infringement claims only if it is sued first:" - which is kind of interesting since it states openly what some folks have more just muttered under their breath.

Other car companies are also getting into the game. http://www.businessinsider.com/like-...patents-2015-1

[paul cottingham]

A great deal of Open Source software is basically given away for the good of mankind. One of the best examples I can think of is Asterisk the open source PBX. He could have closed source it and made a killing off of it, instead, he published it under an open license, people can use it for free in any context. Ironically, he is still making a good living off of it anyways, through hardware sales and packaging.

[Bradley Gray]

There's a book by Chris Anderson, former editor of Wired mag, called Makers. This book describes a new business model embracing open source using Creative Commons (https://creativecommons.org/tag/open-source) registration instead of patents, a forum like this one to generate continuous improvement as well as advertizing and no litigation.

There are several flavors of the Creative Commons registration but basically use is licensed as long as all improvements remain open source. Resources directed at improvement instead of lawsuits - what's not to like?

[David Ragan]

This is a great question, but the corporations that give away software-I always thought it made us hostage. Maybe not. I don't know enough about it to back that up.

But, there was a PBS program about a mathematician in the 1800s in England that tried to figure out if it is possible to be altruistic without any type of positive benefit whatsoever. He went to all kinds of extreme measures with his poverty, serving others, and living conditions.

After spending the majority of his life in that endeavor, he came away, old, broken down, disease-ridden from all the stress and squalid conditions, and the answer was No, it is not possible to be 100% altruistic.

[Rich Enders]

The major polymer manufacturers surround their products with patents, and then provide their customers free license under the patents. Sort of a self-serving altruism.

[fred marcuson]

pretty sure the patent on turn signals on cars was given away ...

[David Ragan]

OK, the guy was an American, and he committed suicide in 1975.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...n-1358399.html

George Price.

[paul cottingham]

This is a great question, but the corporations that give away software-I always thought it made us hostage. Maybe not. I don't know enough about it to back that up.

But, there was a PBS program about a mathematician in the 1800s in England that tried to figure out if it is possible to be altruistic without any type of positive benefit whatsoever. He went to all kinds of extreme measures with his poverty, serving others, and living conditions.

After spending the majority of his life in that endeavor, he came away, old, broken down, disease-ridden from all the stress and squalid conditions, and the answer was No, it is not possible to be 100% altruistic.

Nope. I know several open source software developers, and have met and spoken to the developer of Asterix. Most develop open source as a matter of principle. The fellow who wrote qmail and djbdns has stated that he writes open source because he believes it's more secure.