Managing intellectual property rights in cross-border clean energy collaboration: The case of the U.S.–China Clean Energy Research Center

Joanna I. Lewis

Energy Policy, 2014, vol. 69, issue C, 546-554

Abstract: This paper examines how the United States and China are implementing the most ambitious model of bilateral clean energy technology cooperation to date: The U.S.–China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC). It finds that the CERC has been able to generate new IP through RD&D activities, though minimal IP has come from collaborative activities involving both U.S. and Chinese participants. Many participants reported that the CERC's Technology Management Plan (TMP) mitigated their IP concerns, though few have tested its efficacy or enforceability. While it is too early to comprehensively assess the efforts of the CERC, it is increasingly evident that the CERC provides a model for collaborative clean energy RD&D that is unique in the history of U.S.–China collaborations in this area. The TMP may ultimately play an important role in building trust among the consortia participants, which could lead to even more constructive collaborations in the future, and serve as a model for future bilateral cooperation agreements. Without sustained support, and continued attention to IP concerns, it will be even harder for China and the United States to make progress towards true cross-national research collaborations which ultimately could produce considerable global benefits, particularly in the clean energy field.

Keywords: U.S.–China cooperation; Energy research; development and demonstration (RD&D); Intellectual property rights (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421513013177
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:69:y:2014:i:c:p:546-554

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.12.053

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu (repec@elsevier.com).