During the COVID-19 pandemic, some companies gave away their patents so that others could copy their inventions and manufacture life-saving equipment. Yet this isn’t a new phenomenon. Throughout history, there are countless examples of firms lifting the lid on game-changing innovations. Read on to see the companies that made patents and trade secrets freely available and just why they did it.

Way back in the 1850s a war broke out between several major sewing machine inventors in America. Elias Howe had created the first idea for a machine in 1846, but Isaac Merritt Singer had added to this and created his own patent in 1851. This resulted in multiple lawsuits between different companies, and the perfect machine wasn’t actually created.

Eventually four of the leading inventors agreed to create a ‘patent pool’ whereby they opened up nine patents to those in the pool and each of the four stakeholders was given a percentage of the earnings on each machine created, depending on which part they had contributed.

The three-point seat belt was invented in 1959 by Nils Bohlin, an engineer at Volvo. Volvo opened the patent so any manufacturer could use it. It believed it was more important to share the technology behind the life-saving invention rather than keeping it secret in order to profit from it.

Until it was created, drivers and pilots used two-point seat belts or harnesses, neither of which provided a great deal of safety. As a mark of the significance of sharing the invention, Nils Bohlin received a gold medal from the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science in 1995 and was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1999.

In the late 1970s, when technology for home computers was in its relative infancy, IBM kept itself open. This meant other firms could create similar computers and components that were compatible with IBM products. This model was not followed by other computer companies at the time, including Apple and Atari. They both used closed systems and the components for their computers were not compatible with other products.

This approach from IBM led to a huge boost in production at first and, for a while, it was the market leader. However, this was short-lived and, after rival companies began producing near identical products, IBM’s share of the market dwindled and in 2005 it was sold to Lenovo.

The Eco-Patents Commons was launched in January 2008 in partnership with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. It's a collective designed to promote and share environmentally-sustainable solutions. The first companies to sign up included IBM, Sony and Nokia. Home applicance manufacturer Bosch later joined the party.

The technologies Bosch has shared are designed to reduce vehicle emissions and it also has also opened up patents on turning waste heat from vehicles into energy.

Xerox also joined the Eco-Patents Commons in 2008 and offered 11 new patents relating to its 2-PHASE Extraction technology, which Xerox has used to remove more than 98% of volatile organic solvents from shallow groundwater in contaminated sites.

Patty Calkins, Xerox's vice president of environment, health and safety, said at the time: "We developed the 2-PHASE technology more than 15 years ago to help us remediate sites more quickly and at less expense... we believe it will be a valuable tool for others, such as the local dry cleaners or gas stations, who need to clean up volatile organic compounds."

Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, announced he was giving away the patent to his electric cars in 2014. In the announcement, the technology entrepreneur and inventor said the company would not “initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.” 

The company said it wanted Tesla to act as a catalyst for other manufacturers and it had opened up the patent to other firms in order to accelerate the widespread adoption of electric cars. The move was also designed to benefit Tesla by bringing electric vehicles into mainstream production.  

Shortly after Tesla announced it would share its patents, Toyota followed suit in 2015 and agreed to share its 5,680 patents related to electric vehicles. It said the move was to help promote the technology and advance the production of fuel-cell vehicles. Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota, said at the time: “One car company alone cannot create a hydrogen society, it needs to be a worldwide effort.” This was the first time the Japanese manufacturer had opened up one of its patents without charging a royalty fee and came shortly before it launched a new fuel-cell Sedan in the US and Europe. 

In 2019, the automaker said it would release 23,740 patents relating to its hybrid technology, including fuel cells, electric motors, power control units, system controls and engine transaxles and chargers. The car company has the world's largest hybrid model range and has sold more than 13 million hybrid vehicles around the world since 1997.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has shared a number of its patents in order to allow companies in poorer countries to make the medicines it has created. It describes the approach as being flexible and says, while intellectual property protection is key to continued investment, opening up the patents can help solve global health challenges.

In the least developed countries, GSK says it will not file for patent use for its medicines, while in lower-middle income countries it will file but will also work with the country to allow it to license and produce generic versions of a medicine for 10 years in exchange for a small royalty fee.

It’s estimated that 820 million people across the globe are suffering from malnutrition, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and, by opening up its patents, Nutriset says it is helping to tackle the problem. It has developed a range of nutritional products that do not need to be dissolved into water, which could be diseased. Instead, these products come in paste, milk and tablet forms to treat severe acute malnutrition. 

The French company worked with local doctors in Malawi, where it was first tested, to recreate the recipe for its Plumpy’Nut product using locally-sourced products. It has a system in place where it partners with local people and helps them to create the product, giving them manufacturing experience and, crucially, access to the patent and trademarks.

Along with Tesla and Toyota, Ford also agreed to allow rival manufacturers to use its patents for electric vehicles in 2015. The difference with the Michigan-based company is that it attached a fee to the intellectual property, allowing other companies to buy licenses to the technology instead of giving them away for free.

Ford opened up access to some of its electric vehicle patents to widen the creation of electric, hybrid and fuel-cell cars across the world. Kevin Layden, director of Ford’s electrification projects, said at the time: “By sharing our research with other companies, we will accelerate the growth of electrified vehicle technology and deliver even better products to customers.”  

Golden rice is a type of rice developed through genetic engineering. It contains Vitamin A and has an open patent so it can be reproduced. It was invented to be produced and eaten in countries where there is a shortage of Vitamin A. There are differing views over its benefits, with some believing it cannot be used as a Vitamin A replacement, and that the beta carotene in the rice doesn’t convert into this vitamin when eaten.

The Golden Rice Project says that, as it is a humanitarian project, the patent is readily available for those in poorer countries. However, the exact details on how it can be recreated are unclear. The project says farmers with an income of less than $10,000 a year are able to grow it without a license, however there are no details about how this is enforced and some have criticized how a blanket approach can work in different countries.   

In 2017 Google and a number of major Android phone developers, including Samsung, LG and HTC, agreed to share some patents. These patents related to Android and Google applications and were opened up between the firms so any device which is compatible with Android will also be able to access Google applications.

The group of companies agreed the patents will be shared for free under an agreement named "Android Network Cross-Licence"’. It’s known as "Pax" for short, which means peace in Latin, and the idea behind opening the patents is to reach a legal peace in the technology world, which is often guilty of stifling competition that could otherwise benefit customers.

Nokia signed an agreement to share some patents with the Chinese smartphone producer Xiaomi in 2017. A statement released at the time said “standard, essential" patents would be shared between the two companies, allowing them to create new products with each other’s innovations.

Xiaomi was once the biggest-selling smartphone brand in China, and access to some of Nokia’s patents will help it with global expansion. Nokia will benefit from Xiaomi using its infrastructure technology.   

US healthcare and bioengineering company Medtronic made the decision to publicly share designs for its Puritan Bennett 560 ventilator, as demand for the life-saving devices surges amid the global coronavirus pandemic. The portable ventilator has the advantages of being compact and lightweight, so it can easily be transported and installed in a variety of settings.

While the company had already increased its own production by 40%, it acknowledged it could be doing more. So it's made its product and service manuals, design requirement documents, manufacturing documents and schematics available freely online. “By openly sharing the PB 560 design information, we hope to increase global production of ventilator solutions for the fight against COVID-19,” said Bob White, executive vice president and president of the company's minimally invasive therapies group.

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