General Electric is one of the most admired and most innovative companies in the world. It is always looking to push the envelope, as expressed in its company slogan of “imagination at work.”
Now, it’s come up with a new approach to creativity, as reported by Joshua Brustein for the New York Times: “On April 10, GE announced a partnership with Quirky, a New York-based start-up that is a kind of social network for inventors, helping turn vague ideas into marketable items, manufacturing them, and distributing them through stores like Best Buy and Target. GE is licensing hundreds of its patents to the company’s community and working directly to help identify particularly promising consumer uses of these patents. The number of patents that GE is making available is expected to grow into the thousands in the coming months. The deal provides for GE to share in the revenue from resulting products. The company will thus have a chance to profit further from its intellectual property — say, for special coatings to protect industrial equipment from water damage, or cooling techniques for LED lighting systems — without having to figure out itself how such things might appeal to consumers.”
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