Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

The Open Covid Pledge: Design, Implementation And Preliminary Assessment Of An Intellectual Property Commons, Jorge L. Contreras

Utah Law Review

Early during the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of widely-publicized incidents gave rise to concerns that holders of patents and other intellectual property (IP) rights could hinder the development, manufacture and distribution of essential medical devices, protective equipment and biomedical products. The global response to these concerns was swift and included the issuance of compulsory licensing orders by several national governments, as well as the proposal of a technology pool by the World Health Organization (WHO). Alongside these efforts, a group of scientific, engineering and legal experts created a lightweight, open framework under which IP holders could voluntarily pledge not to …

Vaccine Clinical Trials And Data Infrastructure, Ana Santos Rutschman

Utah Law Review

We find ourselves at a momentous turn in the history of vaccines. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a quasi-global vaccine race that not only compressed vaccine research and development (R&D) timelines, but also paved the way for the administration of a new type of vaccine technology – mRNA vaccines, which work in substantially different ways from the vaccines in use before the pandemic.

While the process of bringing emerging COVID-19 vaccines to market has taken place in an unusually short timeframe, it was largely predicated on the same scientific and regulatory processes that govern the development, approval and deployment of new …

Covid-19 And Its Impact(S) On Innovation, Clark Asay, Stephanie Plamondon Bair

Utah Law Review

In previous work, we explored how certain characteristics of adversity are often more conducive to innovation than others. In this Article, prepared as part of the Lee E. Teitelbaum Utah Law Review Symposium—The Law & Ethics of Medical Research, we review some of that work and apply it specifically to the COVID-19 context. We conclude by assessing certain policy implications in light of how the COVID-19 pandemic has both spurred and hindered innovation.

Covid-19 As An Example Of Why Genomic Sequence Data Should Remain Patent Ineligible, Jorge L. Contreras

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

The researchers who determined the genomic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus did not seek to patent it, but instead released it in the publicly-accessible GenBank data repository. Their release of this critical data enabled the scientific community to mobilize rapidly and conduct research on a range of diagnostic, vaccine, and therapeutic applications based on the viral RNA sequence. Had the researchers sought patent protection for their discovery, as earlier research teams had during the SARS, H1N1 and H5N1 outbreaks, global research relating to COVID-19 would have been less efficient and more costly. One of the reasons that patents are no …

The Open Covid Pledge: Design, Implementation And Preliminary Assessment Of An Intellectual Property Commons, Jorge L. Contreras

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Early during the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of widely-publicized incidents gave rise to concerns that holders of patents and other intellectual property (IP) rights could hinder the development, manufacture and distribution of essential medical devices, protective equipment and biomedical products. The global response to these concerns was swift and included the issuance of compulsory licensing orders by several national governments, as well as the proposal of a technology pool by the World Health Organization (WHO). Alongside these efforts, a group of scientific, engineering and legal experts created a lightweight, open framework under which IP holders could voluntarily pledge not to …