A new platform to connect the dots

We're all familiar with the concept of patents. They're supposed to encourage innovators and protect their intellectual property from piracy, right?

Well, yes, to a certain extent.

But there's a lot more to it, so here's a story about how creativity, patents and open source knowledge are interconnected, and how bright minds in the developing world now have a new tool to help devise new solutions using old knowledge.

We'll start with the architect of the modern patent system, the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.

Although he acknowledged that a degree of protection was a good incentive for innovators and inventors, Jefferson also believed that too much protection would reduce the value of knowledge, and encourage monopoly.

That's why the system limits the duration of patents, and makes patent owners disclose the details behind the filing.

“The purpose of the patent system was to teach everyone what you'd invented so people could build on each other's ideas.”

So says?another Jefferson,?CEO of?the non-profit?Cambia.org,?Richard Jefferson.?(Richard says there is a family connection.)?

But, he says, lawyers do their best to minimise the?information?that?is?made public,?making the knowledge?hard to decipher and?tilting the system?towards?more?protection and?less?sharing.

“A patent today is a toll, that takes an invention and turns it into a disclosure that hides almost everything and gets the most rights (from it),” Jefferson adds.

But what if, despite these restrictions, the information that is disclosed within patent filings could be built upon by other innovators, allowing them to extend and expand the existing knowledge?

That’s the intriguing proposition at the heart of Jefferson’s newest venture, The Lens.

Old?patents and reports he?says, are like an ocean of riches. As most people pay attention to active waves, they?mostly ignore the vast?body of valuable knowledge that resides in the quiet water behind.

“Within that corpus of massive knowledge are the germs and sometimes the full articulation of solutions to people's real world problems” he says. “We can have new businesses formed from that (knowledge), we can have new enterprises formed. We like to think of it as 'surface and repurpose'. ”

Richard Jefferson, CEO of Cambia.org        

The Lens platform?is designed to inspire creativity and generate solutions by?enabling?connections?between innovators?and?experts.?Here’s how it works.

The platform?gathers and organises?available?patents, research and scholarly works, making?them?easily searchable. It also tags the information with metadata,?highlighting?the people and the institutions behind?the knowledge.

This means innovators can not only scrutinise?the current state of?knowledge?in any chosen field,?but also identify and connect with experts?who can interpret and use that knowledge.?

These connections could then form the basis of?new?informal communities that would map the key elements in the field and, hopefully, generate new insights and solutions based upon the shared information and understanding.

The platform is essentially, free, but invites sponsorship donations from those who would join the mission of making information more available to those that cannot pay.

In the?developing world, where innovative and creative minds?face significant obstacles connecting with expertise and information,?this amounts to a?meaningful step up?for entrepreneurs.

Overall it’s a fascinating initiative, and Jefferson himself is an articulate and engaging champion of open source collaboration.

Listen to?his full thesis, including a fascinating tale about how 16th?century?Dutch adventurer Jan Huyghen van Linschoten?effectively laid the groundwork for both global trade and the open source movement, in the Tech For Impact Podcast.