Nokia just made an unprecedented move: In an effort to boost the local Finnish economy, they're throwing open their thousands of unused patents so that any company in Finland can pursue ideas that Nokia has abandoned. The innovations include ideas for energy, location-based services and ads, health-care applications and internet services, among others. It's not simply a matter of Nokia giving out its worst ideas for free--it, along with many big, innovative companies, frequently patents ideas which they ultimately decide not to pursue for reasons ranging from feasibility to manpower.
Dubbed the Nokia Technopolis Innovation Mill, it's a partnership with Technopolis, a European chain of office parks, Tekes, a Finnish tech funding agency, and several Finnish cities and towns. As the press release explains, it's all part of an effort to pump activity into the Finnish economy at large; Nokia acknowledges that promising ideas might ultimately blossom if pursued by smaller, more focused firms. To support that effort, 8 million euros in venture funding will pour in; 4.5 million of that will be publicly provided.
Would something like this ever work in the U.S., where patents have often become a way of squatting on an idea hoping for a payout when someone else pursues it? Would any company be so apparently altruistic?
Related: The Fast Company 50 - 2009: Nokia
[Via PSFK]
Related Stories: | Topics:Innovation, Technology, Design, Ethonomics, patents unpending, nokia, philanthropy, Patents, inventions, economics, Business Incubators, Corporate Responsiblity, Nokia Corporation, Law, Intellectual Property, Patents, Finland |
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Recent Comments | 3 Total
September 28, 2009 at 10:22am by Vicky Eltham
Just got myself the N97 what a awesome phone!
Vicky Eltham
Hot Tools Curling Iron
October 1, 2009 at 3:17am by Alex Banti
In 1898, Eduard Polón founded Finnish Rubber Works, manufacturer of galoshes and other rubber products advertising, which later became Nokia's rubber business.At the beginning of the 20th century, Finnish Rubber Works established its factories near the town of Nokia and began using Nokia as its product brand.In 1912, Arvid Wickström founded Finnish Cable Works, producer of telephone, telegraph and electrical cables and the foundation of Nokia's cable and electronics businesses.At the end of the 1910s, shortly after World War I, the Nokia Company shoes was nearing bankruptcy.To ensure the continuation of electricity supply from Nokia's generators, Finnish Rubber Works acquired the business of the insolvent company.In 1922, Finnish Rubber Works acquired Finnish Cable Works.In 1937, Verner Weckman, a sport wrestler and Finland's first Olympic Gold medalist, became President of Finnish Cable Works, after 16 years as its Technical Director.After World War II, Finnish Cable Works supplied cables to the Soviet Union as part of Finland's war reparations. This gave the company a good foothold for later trade.The three companies, which had been jointly owned since 1922, were merged to form a new industrial computer desktop conglomerate, Nokia Corporation in 1967 and paved the way for Nokia's future as a global corporation.The new company was involved in many industries, producing at one time or another paper products, car and bicycle tires, footwear (including Wellington boots), communications cables, televisions and other consumer electronics, personal computers, electricity generation machinery, robotics, capacitors, military communications and equipment (such as the SANLA M/90 device and the M61 gas mask for the Finnish Army), plastics, aluminium and chemicals.Each business unit had its own director who reported to the first Nokia Corporation President, Björn Westerlund. As the president of the Finnish Cable Works, he had been responsible for setting up the company’s first electronics watches department in 1960, sowing the seeds of Nokia’s future in telecommunications.