GE to share patents with crowdsourcing platform

Technology company General Electric (GE) has partnered with crowdsourcing product development website Quirky to offer inventors access to thousands of its patents.

The initiative will allow Quirky users to use lab-tested GE technology to develop new consumer products. GE and Quirky are also accepting ideas for a range of co-branded app-enabled home devices.

Terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, but a spokesperson for GE confirmed that it will share profits and costs with Quirky, and will receive royalties on products which use its patents.

In a statement released on Wednesday, April 10, Ben Kaufman, chief executive of Quirky, said it will encourage innovation and allow inventors to build on existing technologies without fear of infringement.

“For years patents have become widely misunderstood and misused. We are going to return patents to their original purpose to act as a blueprint for technological and societal progress while protecting inventors and becoming a source of inspiration for future creators,” he said.

Based in New York City, Quirky allows Internet users to submit product ideas which other users can comment on, develop and vote for. The most promising designs submitted each week are then developed by Quirky’s in-house team of engineers and designers and sold on the site or in retail outlets such as Target and Amazon. The inventor and any users who have influenced the product development process are then paid royalties from sales.

GE patents will be made available on Quirky in May this year. Initial offerings will include holographic and fast-focusing lens technology, tracking technology and hard-wearing coatings for electronic devices.

Beth Comstock, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at GE, said she hoped the initiative would encourage “advanced manufacturing innovation”.

“This partnership is just another way we can help inspire invention and help scale it. We are excited to see how the Quirky community uses tools from our scientists and technologists around the world to develop products in an entirely different way,” she added.

David Feigenbaum, a principal at Fish & Richardson in Boston, said he applauded the companies' partnership. “This is a visionary platform for cooperative thinking by everyone everywhere. What more important way to change the world than making the marketplace for patents more fluid?” he added.

“Our economy is driven by big new ideas. Put good patents in front of the brains of more people, let those innovators take advantage of the protection they offer and great things will happen. There may be some tricky IP issues to navigate. But so what—smart brains will invent around them,” he said.