During talks in Beijing last week, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) and China's State Intellectual Property office (SIPO) revealed plans to develop a new framework for green R&D links between businesses and universities in the two countries.

The joint plans were discussed in the context of surmounting legal obstacles that can impede cross-border research. In particular, the two nations will work towards an agreement on where IP rights should reside, in cases where clean innovations have emerged from bilateral R&D. The aim is to ensure that the production and diffusion of clean technologies will not be hampered by legal delays.

UK-IPO international director Peter Holland said: 'Evidence suggests that managing and reaching agreement in IP ownership and access is difficult in all industry sectors. This means that collaborative projects can take a long time to set up, or may simply never happen.

'The provision of a framework for IP management looks to encourage and support more collaboration. It could also dramatically reduce the transaction costs involved in establishing such agreements and we hope this increases technology diffusion.'

SIPO head of international co-operation Lu Guoliang said that the recessional climate had made it 'very important to provide a platform for industry and the academic sector, from both China and the UK, to discuss and exchange views on collaborative research'.

The talks also heard from Confederation of British Industry (CBI) director general Richard Lambert, who predicted that important clean technologies would increasingly come from joint ventures. 'Model IP agreements and guidance … can significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the collaboration process,' he said.

Meanwhile, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) chief Francis Gurry has backed World Meteorological Organization (WMO) plans to form a global programme for boosting the creation and delivery of climate prediction tools. Speaking during the WMO's third annual World Climate Conference, Gurry signalled WIPO's desire to help the group build awareness of IP's role in addressing climate change.

In addition, Gurry has released a supportive message to the United Nations (UN) Seal the Deal campaign. Aimed at December's climate change conference in Copenhagen, Seal the Deal is pressing for a firm agreement on solutions between participating governments. Adding WIPO's weight to the campaign, Gurry said that the IP system 'has an extremely important role to play in fostering the creation, diffusion and application of clean technologies'.

The UN also features in a current initiative from the European Patent Office (EPO). Its Environment Programme has joined with the EPO to conduct a survey on the licensing of environmentally sound technologies (ESTs). With the results set for discussion under the UN's Convention on Climate Change, the groups are hoping to gauge how effective the licensing system is for diffusing ESTs.

'While representing only one piece of a wider set of conditions and components that determine the rate, composition and magnitude of technology transfer, IP Rights are of fundamental importance,' the EPO said. The survey closes on 25 September – to take part, visit www.epo.org/patents/surveys.