Purposes of the Patent System in the Era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Environmental Conservation (Global Warming, Climate Change and Patent Law)

Laws regarding global warming and climate change are enacted in Japan, but the Japanese patent system was considered as an industrial property system and not in the context of an environmental protection system.

However, considering the nature of climate change problems, it is important to include environmental conservation as one of the purposes of the patent system and consider the patent system in solving climate change problems.

Page 27 of the following IPCC report states, “From a physical science perspective, limiting human-induced global warming to a specific level requires limiting cumulative CO2 emissions, reaching at least net zero CO2 emissions, along with strong reductions in other greenhouse gas emissions.”  (IPCC, 2021: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S.L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M.I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E. Lonnoy, J.B.R. Matthews, T.K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelekçi, R. Yu, and B. Zhou (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 3−32, doi:10.1017/9781009157896.001.)

In the past, it was considered that global warming could be solved by reducing emissions. However, even if CO2 emissions are reduced, cumulative CO2 emissions will increase, so global warming cannot be stopped.  It is now recognized that it is necessary to realize at least “net zero” CO2 emissions.

However, net zero CO2 emissions are difficult to achieve at the present (2023) level of human technology. Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) and other CO2 absorption technologies are being developed, but at present, there is a cost issue and absorption is limited.  It is necessary to limit CO2 emissions to a minimal amount.

Taking the example of power plants, however, many thermal power plants are burning fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil. Other power generation systems also emit CO2.

Production, transportation, and disposal of materials, such as iron and other metals, plastics, and concrete, are also associated with CO2 emissions.

Even recycling materials cause CO2 emissions.  For example, there are three main types of plastic recycling methods (thermal recycling, material recycling, and chemical recycling). CO2 is emitted not only from thermal recycling but also from material recycling and chemical recycling.

Passenger aircrafts use fossil fuels.  Electric cars and trains use electricity from thermal or other power plants, and use metal and plastics for the body of cars, which also leads to CO2 emissions.

Households cannot use gas, electricity or water if they reduce CO2 emissions to zero. Even with solar panels, the production and disposal of panels causes CO2 emissions. Housing materials including metals, concrete, plastics, etc. also result in CO2 emissions.

Within forests in a state of equilibrium without human intervention, the amount of trees does not increase and net CO2 absorption is almost zero, so it is difficult to rely exclusively and excessively on CO2 absorption by forests.

The question is how to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.

The essence of the problem of climate change is that the current level of human technology (2023) cannot solve the current problems, and it is fundamentally necessary to raise the level of human technology.

Technological innovations are necessary to solve the fundamental climate change issues that we now face.  For example, we need technologies that shift toward a civilization not reliant on burning fossil fuels, technologies that realize the potentials of renewable energy through remarkable development of energy storage technologies such as battery technologies, dramatically developed CO2 absorption technologies, and climate control technologies such as geo-engineering (which is currently unavailable because of its side effects).

Thus, there is one thing that is more important in resolving climate change problems than simply charging for plastic bags recently debated in Japan. This is to add environmental conservation and resolving climate change problems to the purpose of the patent system.

The purpose of the patent system is set forth in Article 1 of the Japanese Patent Act, which is to contribute to the “development of industry”.

This has not been amended from the Japanese Patent Act (Act No. 121 of April 13, 1959) (the Act of 1959).  In the postwar period of high economic growth in Japan, the “development of industry” was extremely important.

However, in today’s age of artificial intelligence (AI), society is becoming more complex, and it is important to take into account not only the “development of industry” but also various values including environmental conservation.  For example, it is important to solve climate change problems by accelerating the development of environment-related technologies using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Social innovations are necessary to add environmental conservation into the purpose of the patent system and make the patent system suitable for addressing climate change problems.  This will greatly contribute towards solving climate change problems.

For example, if a patent system adds solving climate change problems to its purpose and a patent for solving climate change problems is chosen to be licensed free of charge to countries throughout the world; the amount of CO2 reduced by the patented technologies can be counted towards Japan’s reductions and the inventor can receive remuneration from the government according to the amount of CO2 reductions.

If Japan begins such a system and such systems spread to other countries around the world, it will contribute to solve climate change problems.

This leads to “Environmental World Patent (EWP)” systems. At present, patent systems throughout the world are separated by country, and the concept of a “World Patent” is yet to be realized. However, climate change is a global issue. It will be necessary to realize a “World Patent” in the environmental field as an “Environmental World Patent (EWP)” at first, and to extend them to other fields to realize a “World Patent”.

The “Environmental World Patent” can be realized by the mutual recognition of patents as follows.  Each country makes a purpose for its patent system include solving climate change problems.  If one country has granted a patent for environmental technologies for solving climate change problems, then other countries in the world could mutually recognize the patent. People and companies in the countries that recognize the patent could use the patent free of charge, and the countries could calculate and report estimates of CO2 reductions from using such technologies.

“Environmental World Patents” are unlikely to be based on the monopolization of technologies, because global implementation of such technologies would be effective for solving climate change problems. The patented technologies could be freely available, but the inventor would be compensated according to the amount of CO2 reductions, etc. by the use of the technologies.

The author proposed adding environmental conservation, etc. to the purpose of the patent system.  The author also proposed that the purposes of the patent system should include realizing functions such as financial function, technology visualization function, new industries development function (industrial structure conversion function), creative environment arrangement function, productivity increase function (creative human resources function), support function for technological development using artificial intelligence (AI) as well as the theories of compensation for public disclosure, incentives and competitive order (Yoshinori Okamoto: “Purpose of Patent System in the Era of Artificial Intelligence (AI)”, Patent Vol. 76, No. 6, pp. 103-111 (2023)).

In particular, the support function for technological development using artificial intelligence (AI) will be important in solving climate change problems.

The number of researchers and engineers involved in research and development is limited, and the pace of technology development is too slow, when developing technologies that can help solve climate change problems. However, by supporting human research and development, artificial intelligence (AI) could dramatically increase the rate of technological development to help solve climate change problems.

In this way, it is necessary to think flexibly about the purposes of the patent system from a broad perspective in the era of artificial intelligence (AI).