Journal of Intellectual Property Rights Vol 21, September-November 2016, pp 337-346

Climate Mitigation Technologies–Perspective Based on Patents Nishad A Deshpande1,2† and Asha Nagendra2

1CSIR Unit for Research and Development of Information Products, Pune, India 2SIMS, Symbiosis International University, Pune, India

Received 05 November 2015; accepted 07 July 2016

Indian Government has made global commitment to reduce the emissions by 33% to 35% by year 2030. To achieve this target, interventions and improvements in the existing technologies being used would be needed. In this paper using patent data, an effort has been made to find out the trends in the technologies relating to climate change mitigation. The focus of majority of these technologies is to capture and separate carbon dioxide. Majority of these technologies are originating in USA and Japan. It was observed that with 237 patents/applications, L’Air Liquide is the top assignee in the area. In recent years, the leader is challenged by new entrant Altsom Technology, who has been aggressively filing patents and has overtaken L’Air Liquide. The paper reveals major patent owners in various technologies relating to climate change mitigation and this information would be helpful in seeking licenses and partnerships or for scouting for the technologies to meet the commitment to reduce the emissions.

Keywords: Climate change, Kyoto Protocol, Green House Gas, EU Emission Trading System, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, TRIPS, mitigation technologies, patents

In 2014, new government was elected in India with a mandate to push rapid development. The government then launched the “Make in India” initiative that aims to streamline investment regulations and proposes major infrastructure expansion to support rapid growth in manufacturing, including development of smart cities and industrial corridors. Due to economic growth, increasing industrialisation, Indian energy consumption is growing at approximately 4.6% which represents an increase of 100% in 15 years. Along with increase in energy demand, India’s energy supply has also become more carbon intensive because the share of fossil fuels has risen, particularly with growing use of coal for electricity generation and diesel for transport.

The combination of rapid growth in energy demand and the rising carbon dependency of energy have resulted in the rapid increase of CO2 emissions from energy use, averaging a little over 5.5% a year.1 India has bucked global trend of declining CO2 emissions to emerge as the world’s fastest-growing major polluter. As per British Petroleum’s comprehensive Statistical Review of World Energy, for the first time in history, India’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which had increased by 8.1% in 2014, accounted for the largest share of global emissions growth.2 Thus, even as it

deals with the problems of achieving rapid and inclusive economic growth, India also has to ensure that growth is sustainable.

Existing agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol and the EU Emission Trading System (ETS) have required Green House Gas (GHG) reduction. There is wide spread agreement that achieving the dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions necessary to stabilize GHG concentrations at between 450 and 750 parts per million (ppm) would require innovation and large-scale adoption of GHG-reducing technologies throughout the global energy system.3

On the other hand, a number of climate technology policies have emerged, at both national and international levels. Such policies include government funding for research, development, and demonstration of new technologies, subsidies and mandates for the production of alternative fuels and associated technologies (renewable portfolio, building, and biofuel standards), loan guarantees for investments, technology performance standards (for energy efficiency), and the provision of information to encourage improved decision making by equipment purchasers. Alongside policies aimed directly at mandatory GHG emission reductions, discussion has also surrounded at policies targeted at technology research and development (R&D) activities and technology-specific mandates and incentives. This has

—————— †Corresponding author: Email: nishad1510@hotmail.com

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led to development of new less GHG/CO2 intensive technologies and promoting their global diffusion in particular in fast-growing emerging economies, thereby bringing technology at the core of discussions about the post-Kyoto regime.4 When compared to other forms of stimulating innovation such as subsidies or tax credits, the IP instrument has the well‐known welfare cost that it tends to grant firms short term market power, which leads to lower output and higher prices for innovation.5

In its latest report, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Adhoc Working Group on Long term Cooperative Action (AWG‐LCA) proposed specific IP‐related regulations for the post‐Kyoto framework on climate change. The guidelines proposed by developing countries include patent pooling, royalty‐free compulsory licensing of green technologies, eliminating green technologies from patenting and even withdrawing existing patent rights on green technologies.5 These exclusions to standard patent regulations are already partly restricted in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) which allows for prohibiting to the exclusive rights of patents for public policy reasons and provides for the option of compulsory licensing. Derclaye argues that the patent system should even be used to promote green technologies and exclude technologies that lead to increased CO2 emissions.6 In accordance with this view, the USPTO launched in December 2009 its 12‐month “Green Technology Pilot Program” under which patents related to green technologies benefit from substantially accelerated examination process.7

The worldwide challenge of climate change mitigation has led to an increased interest in the mechanisms that encourage the development and adoption of new technologies. In particular, recent rapid economic growth in several large developing economies has focused policy attention on the role of technology transfer and technology development in countries that are not generally on the technology frontline in facilitating the use of clean technologies.5

Rapid growth means new investment and new investment is an opportunity for significant upgradation of technologies.

International technology transfer typically takes place via trade, foreign direct ventures, joint ventures with local partners, or simple technology licensing, even though in the latter case, some unstated material probably also needs to be transferred. In all of these cases, foreign firms run the risk that imitation/copying

by local firms may erode some of their profits from these activities, so the presence frequently enforceable IPRs should encourage these activities.8

The UNFCCC defines Climate Change Mitigation Technologies (CCMT) as technologies which can be related to a human intervention directed to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases.9 However, identifying such technologies is difficult because CCMTs are found in many technical areas, from chemistry to electronics, and from engine technologies to semiconductor industry, which makes it difficult to compile encompassing data. Hence, a project was started up between the EPO, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the International Centre on Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), in April 2009 to create a public information platform that would enable in-depth empirical studies to be undertaken on the role of IPRs in the transfer of CCMTs. To facilitate this effort, selected experienced examiners have identified the relevant patents in the CCMT arena, with an emphasis on greenhouse gas capture and storage and the energy providing and transporting sector.10

Because patents relating to climate change mitigation technologies can be found in wide technological areas, they do not fall under single dedicated classification section, but tend to be spread over several different sections. Further puzzling factor is that these newly emerging technologies are developing very quickly. This often leads to certain new technology being classified and searched independently in several classical technical areas. Hence, there remains strong need to accomplish structured retrieval and identification (“tagging”) of patent documents related to climate change mitigation technologies. This has led to the Y02 classification scheme in Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) that is meant to collect in one suitable location selected technologies, which control, reduce or prevent greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions of anthropogenic origin, as set forth by the Kyoto Protocol.11

In the present study an attempt has been made to analyse patents tagged under the Y class of the Cooperative Patent Classification specifically the technologies or applications for mitigation or adaption against climate change in order to identify the technological trends of such inventions. Identification of overall patenting activity in the area has been done at the beginning. The technologies for which patent protection is being sought has been listed and then

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narrowed down to the technologies that have been preferred in the recent years. The study also lists out major players in this field. Further, identification of markets has been done where protection for these technologies is being sought and what is the situation in India. Methodology and Analysis

Commercial database viz Thomson Innovation,12 was used to search patents tagged with Y CPC class. These patents published till 30th July 2015 were downloaded and used for further analysis. Patent right being territorial in nature, the data was normalised by reducing to one member per family using INPADOC patent family criteria. This data was then imported into a data mining software viz Vantage Point.13 The data was further normalised before analysing using various tools available in the software. Patents counts have been used to come out with the list of major assignees and inventors. Trends have priority year/publication year as time basis. Further co-occurrence statistics has been used to find out technological similarities between the patent documents.

The visualisation of analysis is provided in various forms of co-occurrence matrix and maps generated using Vantage Point software.13 A co-occurrence matrix lists the number of times, items from one field

occur with the items in the second field. Maps provide a set of nodes of varying sizes and links of varying strengths. The nodes represent an item from a list and links represent records or terms shared by the nodes. Cross-correlation map is two-dimensional visual depiction of a set of items (nodes) and their relationship based on another node. The line between two nodes indicates degree of similarity between those two nodes. Nodes connected with bold line have a high degree of similarity, while nodes connected with a dotted or thin line has a lower degree of similarity. The linkages in form of these lines are based on Similarity-based linking algorithm. To interpret a cross-correlation map, we identify “core” and “outlier” items. The core items are linked and clustered in the middle of a map. The outlier items are sometimes new or fringe research, but often represent tangential or multi-disciplinary links to another field of research.13

Results

It is observed that there is an increase in the number of patents being filed/ published under the Y CPC class and there is year on year increase in the filings since year 2008 (Figure 1). Figure 2 reveals that most of the technologies originate in US, followed by Japan.

Fig. 1—Overall activity under the Y CPC class

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*(The patent country codes are abbreviated as per description available at: https://worldwide.espacenet. com/help?topic=countrycodes&method=handleHelpTopic)

Based on the Table1 and Figure 3, it is observed that patent protection for climate change mitigation technologies is sought in developed group countries (which include US, Japan, Europe, Canada, etc.) followed by developing countries that include India, China, Russia, Brazil etc.

L’Air Liquide, a French multinational having core business of supplying industrial gases along with gases used in healthcare items, electronic chips, foods and chemicals, has filed most of the patent applications followed by Mitsubishi, a Japanese organisation (Fig. 4).

Figure 5, depicts co-occurrence of major patent filers with the origin of the invention based on the priority country. Thus, it can be observed that L’Air Liquide draws its R&D strength from France although, it is also generating IP from other countries like US and Europe. On a similar note, Mitsubishi has more patents originating from Japan.

The co-occurrence matrix of Family country and Assignees in Figure 6 reveals that there is major market for the Climate change mitigation technologies in US, Japan, Europe, Canada etc as organisations are filing patents in these countries and seeking protection for their inventions. Example Mitsubishi, although a Japanese company, has more patent family members in US, EP, Canada etc.

Figure 7 of co-occurrence matrix of assignee and publication year reveals that in the recent years, organisations such as Altsom Technology and Mitsubishi have become aggressive in filing patents and have overtaken traditional leaders such as L’Air Liquide. Further it is interesting to observe that Altsom Technologies, a new entrant in this area (first

Fig. 2—Priority country

Fig. 3—Types of countries where protection is sought

Table 1—Countries where protection is sought reveals that most of the technologies are being protected in the counties such as US, Japan, etc.

INPADOC family countries *(patent country code)

No of records

US 4078 JP 3157 EP 2529 CA 1670 DE 1628 CN 1396 AU 1298 KR 818 FR 697 GB 656 AT 472 ES 441 BR 393 TW 358 NO 325 ZA 314 MX 312 RU 309 NL 219 DK 208 IT 148 EA 144 BE 140 AR 111 PL 111 NZ 106 IL 97 SG 84 IN 82 PT 79

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Fig. 4—Top assignees

Fig. 5—Assignees and Priority Country Co-occurrence Matrix

published patent in year 2009), has overtaken the leader L’Air Liquide in recent years and has more published documents. Mitsubishi has also challenged the leader and has more published documents in year 2014 than L’Air Liquide SA. Technology Trends

It is revealed from Figure 8 that major patents/applications filed are in the area of Systems

and Methods for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Sequestration by adsorption (Y02C001008=CO2 Capture by adsorption) followed by technologies related to Systems and Methods for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Sequestration by absorption (Y02C001006=CO2 Capture by absorption) and Systems and Methods for Carbon Dioxide Capture by Chemical Separation (Y02C001004=CO2 Capture by Chemical Separation).

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Fig. 6—Family country and Assignee Co-occurrence Matrix

Fig. 7—Assignee and Publication Year Co-occurrence Matrix

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Fig. 8—CPC and IPC Co-occurrence Matrix

Fig. 9—CPC and Publication Year Co-occurrence Matrix

Fig. 10—Invention focus

Co-occurrence matrix in Figure 9 reveals that in the most recent year, technology focus has shifted to technologies of CO2 separation using absorption and CO2 capture using chemical processes (CPC code Y02C001008 and Y02C1006 respectively in the Figure 9 above). It is further observed that activity in the area of CO2 capture by

biological separation (CPC code Y02C001002) has reduced.

The co-occurrence matrix for CPC code and countries in Figure 10 reveals that patent filed in US are focussed more on CO2 capture using adsorption (Y02C1008), while patents in filed in Japan (JP) focus more on CO2 capture using absorption (Y02C1006).

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Fig. 11—Collaborations

Fig. 12—Cross Correlation Map based on CPC Codes (Technologies) Indian Scenario

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The co-occurrence matrix in Figure 11 reveals that there is collaboration between major Japanese companies such as Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Showa, etc. Collaboration also exists between other non-Japanese companies such as, L’Air Liquide, Air Products etc.

Figure 12 shows that technologies relating to CO2 capture by absorption, CO2 capture by chemical separation and CO2 capture by adsorption are major related technologies. It is further observed that technologies related to capture/disposal of nitrous oxide are also present and it being an outlier shows no relationship with the previously mentioned technologies. The nodes (represented by dots) and relationships between nodes (represented by interconnecting lines) are generated using the CPC code description and patents filed in that area by the major assignees.

L’Air Liquide is major assignee working in the area relating to technologies that capture CO2 using adsorption. On the other hand, Mitsubishi is major assignee in technologies relating to CO2 capture by absorption and CO2 capture by chemical separation. Toyota is major assignee for technologies that are used in capture/disposal of nitrous oxide.

Figure 13 reveals that Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is the leading

India assignee working in the area of climate mitigation technology. It is then followed by public sector entities such as NTPC and IPCL. Few private players such as Carbon clean solutions and Airef Engg have also filed patents.

Figure 14 reveals that Indian assignees have focused on technologies relating to CO2 capture by adsorption followed by CO2 capture by chemical separation.

Figure 15 reveals that non-Indian assignees such as Linde, Metallgesellschaft etc. are filing patents in India.

Fig. 13—Major Indian assignees

Fig. 14—Focus of Indian Assignees

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Conclusion Overall, there is increased activity in the area of

Climate Change Mitigation Technologies, especially after year 2008, there are more patents being filed in this area. Majority of the technologies are originating from US and Japan. Four major technology clusters were revealed for which companies are filing patents. These technologies are CO2 separation by adsorption, CO2 capture by absorption, CO2 capture by chemical separation and Capture/Disposal of Nitrous Oxide. It was further revealed that, in the recent years, the focus has shifted to CO2 separation using absorption and Capture of CO2 using chemical processes.

L’Air Liquide a French Multinational supplying industrial gases is the top patent filer in this area, however, in recent years, L’Air Liquide has been challenged by aggressive filings from other companies such as Altsom Technologies and Mitsubishi as both of them have filed almost double the patents filed by L’Air in year 2014. It was also observed that there is collaboration between Japanese companies such as Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Showa, Canon etc.

There is major market for the climate change mitigation technologies in US, Japan, Europe, and Canada as organisations are filing patents in these countries. Indian assignees have focused on protecting technologies relating to CO2 capture by adsorption followed by CO2 capture by chemical separation. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is the leading Indian assignee working in the area of climate change mitigation technologies.

With India submitting its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) target to lower the emissions intensity of GDP by 33% to 35% by 2030 below 2005 levels, it would be worthwhile to explore option of seeking licenses for patented technologies

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Fig. 15—Non-Indian assignees having family members in India