One Laptop per Child Foundation (OLPC), a nonprofit organization that has a mission in aiding to provide every child in the world access to modern education, and Pixel Qi Corporation, one of the innovators in high-performance, low-power displays, have just signed a permanent and royalty-free cross-licensing agreement. The terms make it possible for both to deliver products incorporating the world's most advanced screen technology.

“A huge barrier to getting computers to mass use in the developing world is limited access to electricity. Pixel Qi is designing new screens for OLPC that will keep laptops going even longer between recharges and excel in long-form reading while providing color and video,” said Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child. “Furthermore, we are not aware of any blanket technology license of this scale of current and future inventions by a commercial firm to a non-profit humanitarian effort and hope to set an example for other corporations to follow.”

One of the results of this agreement is OLPC receiving full license to all Pixel Qi "3qi" screen technology, included with more than 70 patents in process, as well as all of the current and future IP developed by Pixel Qi for multi-mode screens. Pixel Qi is handling the design of the new screen for OLPC's next-gen XO laptops, but the agreement also says that Pixel Qi will be receiving full license to the dual-mode display technology used in the XO.

Mary Lou Jepsen, founder and CEO of Pixel Qi, added, “OLPC’s focus on the need for low-cost, low-power devices led me to invent power-efficient LCD screens that are optimized for reading. Commercial tablets, notebook computers and smart phones have precisely the same needs. This is one of the few examples in which cutting-edge computer technology first deployed for developing nations benefits the developed world as well.”


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