Open Innovation in an Age of Pandemics: Patent Law, Access to Essential Medicines, and the COVID-19 Public Health Crisis
Matthew Rimmer1, QUT Brisbane 1QUT, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Abstract
This presentation considers the use of humanitarian patent licensing during the COVID-19 crisis. In particular, it focuses on the role of voluntary patent licensing and sharing during the COVID-19 crisis.
The Medicines Patent Pool expanded its mandate to include COVID-19 related technologies. Charles Gore of the Medicines Patent Pool has reflected: ‘The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted with horrific clarity the fact that innovation means nothing if there is no availability, and that equity is critical to human health’.
The leader of Costa Rica Carlos Alvarado Quesada and the director-general of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, contended that COVID vaccines should be treated as global public goods. WHO has established a COVID-19 Technology Access Pool ‘to voluntarily share COVID-19 health technology related knowledge, IP and data.’
A range of public research organisations and companies – including HP Enterprise, Intel, and IBM – have taken the Open COVID Pledge to make their ‘IP available free of charge for use in ending the COVID-19 pandemic and minimizing the impact of the disease.’
Universities Allied for Essential Research have been mapping public investment in COVID-19 technologies. The organization has called upon public research institutions to ‘free the vaccine.’ The Stanford Office of Technology Licensing and some other US university technology transfer offices have engaged in public sector licensing of IP for the purpose of making products to prevent, diagnose, and treat COVID-19 during the pandemic.
Open source advocates have advocated the use of open licensing in respect of COVID-19 technologies. There has also been much interest in the use of models of open science to enable collaboration and co-operation during public health emergencies. There was a joint appeal for Open Science during the COVID-19 crisis by CERN, OHCHR, UNESCO and WHO.
This paper will evaluate the success of such models of patent sharing.
Biography
Dr Matthew Rimmer is a Professor in Intellectual Property and Innovation Law at the Faculty of Business and Law, at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).