Analysis at the intersection of intellectual
property law and the public interest.
[Eric E. Johnson and Theodore C. Bailey] Abstract: The course of a pandemic is dictated not just by biology, but also by law. And crucially, unlike biology, law can be readily adapted in response to a pandemic. Unfortunately, the current law does not take account of the compressed timeframe and rapidly changing social needs that distinguish pandemic times from normal
With the number of people afflicted with COVID-19 surging past 1 million, thousands dying of COVID-19 every day, and the situation likely to worsen in the coming months, an international coalition of legal experts, engineers and scientists are calling on companies, universities and other organizations to make their intellectual property (IP) temporarily available free of charge for use in ending
Outgoing Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Francis Gurry, made two public statements this week addressing what he termed the “policy issues” raised by the COVID-19 pandemic. His initial response was that it is “far too early” to address access to medicine and other IP policy issues raised by COVID-19. But in a follow up briefing with
[Last update, April 13, 2020, 9am EST] 149 organizations and 358 individuals have endorsed a civil society letter to WIPO Director General Francis Gurry urging the organization to "take a clear stand in favour of ensuring that intellectual property regimes are a support, and not a hindrance, to efforts to tackle both the Coronavirus outbreak and its consequences."
...Access to affordable medicines, vaccines and diagnostics and to medical equipment, and to the technologies to produce them, is indispensable to treat COVID-19. Such technologies should be broadly available to manufacture and supply what is needed to address the disease... In this connection, I wish to recall that in accordance to the ‘Security Exceptions’ contained in Article 73(b) of the
In March, 2020, two engineers in Brescia, Italy used a desktop 3D printing machine to fabricate needed replacement valves for more than 100 ventilator machines being used to treat coronavirus patients at a local hospital. News reports claim that the ventilator valves fabricated in Italy for a cost of about 1 Euro each were previously sold by the manufacturer for