What would happen if you were given over $2 trillion? That's right, if someone walked up to you and gave you $2 trillion. That could never happen, right?

In fact, that is exactly what has just happened.

While the patent system has been around since the 17^th century when it was developed by nobles in Italy and England, it may surprise you that the system was designed to benefit you. Patents were supposed to be a public disclosure to advance science and useful knowledge. If someone shared sufficient information to teach the public about a novel development or useful technology, they would have a limited time (about 20 years) to decide who could use that idea.

There's some bad news and some good news. First, the bad news: For the past 30 years, patents have been abused. Rather than serving the public's expansion of knowledge, they've been used as business and legal weapons. Over 50,000,000 patents covering everything you do have served to keep you from benefiting in many aspects of your life. Many life-saving treatments have been kept from the market because they threaten established business interests. The world's ecosystem has been severely damaged because efficiencies have been kept from entereing the market.

In the face of all this, however, there is the good news: The thirty year "cold war" of innovation is over. Today, you now have access to it all. In the Global Innovation Commons, we have assembled hundreds of thousands of innovations - most in the form of patents - which are either expired, no-longer maintained (meaning that the fees to keep the patents in force have lapsed), disallowed, or unprotected in most, if not all, relevant markets. This means that, as of right now, you can take a step into a world full of possibilities, not roadblocks. You want clean water for China or Sudan - it's in here. You want carbon-free energy - it's in here. You want food production for Asia or South America - it's in here.

But here's the catch. We're sharing this under a license. The license is really simple. If you use this information, you must share what you're doing with everyone else. If you improve upon it, you must share your improvements with everyone else. And finally, if you use any of this information, you must reference the "Global Innovation Commons." That's it. When you take the next step, turn the possibilities into realities.

About M·CAM, GIC deployment partner

Innovation and Creativity have been a part of the human story for millennia. Global markets had not found efficient ways to build confidence in enterprises reliant on Innovation and Creativity. That was, before M·CAM. For over a decade, M·CAM has been the global leader in integrating innovation and innovation assets into effective capital solutions. From its industry-creating work in innovation and obsolescence risk management for the banking and insurance markets, to its ground-breaking work with Heritable Innovation Trusts which provide prosperous, confident engagement for indigenous communities throughout the world, M·CAM has truly defined Innovation Finance for the 21st century.

About infoDev, GIC deployment collaborator

infoDev (www.infodev.org) is collaborating with M·CAM on the deployment of the Global Innovation Commons making the platform available across its network of nearly 300 incubators in over 80 developing countries. Making the GIC available to incubator managers, technology entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs will help them use this resource in the planning and implementation of their technology related enterprises. Through its global network, infoDev facilitates access to finanace advice, business incubation services, training and capacity building, as part of a broader strategy to help developing country entrepreneurs and start-ups commercialize and deploy technology solutions for their own markets, in areas such as agribusiness and climate-related technologies. For more information, please visit www.infoDev.org/climate.