Patent Pledge Database

Patent pledges are voluntary public commitments that patent holders make to limit the enforcement or exploitation of their patent rights. Such pledges have been made for decades and appear in industries ranging from software to automotive to green tech to biotech. Originally compiled by Prof. Jorge L. Contreras (University of Utah) and now curated by the Center for Advanced Studies in Bioscience Innovation Law (CeBIL) at the University of Copenhagen, this dataset offers the most comprehensive public record of patent pledges to date.<br>
<br>The database covers <b>more than 300 pledges</b> spanning software, telecommunications, green technology, automotive, biotechnology, medical devices, and AI. Each record includes:<br>

<ul> <li>Pledgor name</li> <li>Date of pledge (exact or best‐estimate)</li> <li>Excerpt of the pledge text</li> <li>Patent families / technologies covered</li> <li>Pledge type (e.g., non-assert, FRAND-style)</li> <li>Source URL</li><li>Tracking number (an ID that matches the filename of the archived snapshot </li> capturing the pledge as it appeared online)</li></ul><br>

<b>Available for download</b>
<ul> <li>Master spreadsheet of all pledge metadata</li> <li>PDF, PNG snapshot or MP4 of each pledge at time of collection</li></ul><br>

The CeBIL research team, led by Dr. Gabriela Lenarczyk in close collaboration with Professor Timo Minssen (CeBIL Director), will update the dataset quarterly and welcome community submissions of new pledges or errata.<br>
<br><i>(Initial public release: V1, June 2025; subsequent versions will follow Dataverse semantic-versioning conventions.)</i>