One of Australia's leading intellectual property (IP) lawyers has called on Australian businesses to take the lead in addressing climate change by making clean energy more accessible ahead of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.

The Australian National University's Dr Matthew Rimmer urged the business sector to follow the lead of Tesla Motors' innovative use of IP and create an "ecology of research and development" for clean energy technology like electric cars, batteries and solar power.

"It's critically important that business takes the lead in terms of IP and climate change," Dr Rimmer said.

"Tesla are really fascinating in terms of promoting an open innovation approach to its patents, such as their electric vehicles.

"For Australia it's quite significant. If other countries end up being a leader in clean technology it could become quite problematic."

Dr Rimmer said that the UN must reach a consensus on IP at the climate change conference in Paris this December.

"We can't afford to have the international climate talks collapse again like they did at Copenhagen. In the past five years IP has become a taboo subject," he said.

"Governments need to take action in relation to IP at the Paris climate talks, they need to overcome the deadlocks.

"There needs to be more mechanisms to make clean technologies more widely accessible and for there to be greater incentives to encourage research and development of clean technologies."

Dr Rimmer will be speaking at the Intellectual property and climate change: the Paris accord conference at the ANU on Monday 11 May. Registration is available here.