IP During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Posted on 9 April 2020

Does your business hold Intellectual Property (IP) rights which could help in the present crisis? Do you have a way to help but are worried about infringing IP rights held by third parties?

Capella IP have been lobbying in the background on this issue over the last month. Some commentators and governments are starting to recognise the power of authorities to provide for compulsory licencing and state/Crown use to make IP available in this time of crisis (usually with appropriate licence payments being made at the time or later). Indeed, IP owners themselves can make IP such as patents available by the use of licences of right and in doing so may halve their official renewal fees.

Unlike medicine and product regulation which has seen guidance from the Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK at least, Intellectual Property and how IP can be used to help is much less visible to the public eye as yet. This is understandable – resources are stretched everywhere.

We are heartened by a new initiative on the use of IP during the current crisis. The Open COVID Pledge allows organisations to publicly commit to making IP of relevance to the COVID-19 crisis freely available. This is a crucial and welcome step in fighting this disease.

We realise not all companies will be able to support such initiatives in every way for practical or commercial reasons, however, we urge those who can to consider it carefully, and in any case to be pragmatic in their approach.

https://opencovidpledge.org/

The Capella IP Team