Intel joins open IP pledge; Harvard, MIT, Stanford agree initiative

The  “ Open COVID Pledge”, an initiative launched last week urging companies to free their IP, is gaining traction, with a number of companies already signing up. At the same time, three of the US’ top universities have committed to new licensing principles.

The pledge, founded by a group of scientists, lawyers and entrepreneurs, invites IP owners to grant free and temporary licences to use their patent and copyright protected technology to end the pandemic. More than one million cases of coronavirus have been registered globally, and numbers are climbing each day.

Technology company Intel yesterday, April 7,  joined the pledge as a founding sponsor, offering up its global IP portfolio of more than 72,000 patents to COVID-19 scientists and researchers. Earlier that day, Intel also  pledged an additional $50 million in a pandemic response technology initiative.

“We will continue to invent—and protect—our IP, but we offer it freely to those working to protect people from this pandemic,” said Steven Rodgers, executive vice president and general counsel of Intel.

Unified Patents, an organisation which aims to deter non-practicing entities, has also  joined the pledge, as well as non-profit  Fabricatorz Foundation.

The “Open COVID Pledge” is intended to prevent researchers from the risk of infringement liability.

The non-exclusive and worldwide licences granted under this pledge would extend back to December 1, 2019, and last until one year after the World Health Organization (WHO) declares the pandemic to have ended.

“These unprecedented times call for creativity and generous sharing of knowledge,” said Jennifer Doudna, executive director of the Innovative Genomics Institute of UC Berkeley and one of the founding members of the pledge. She has pledged to make the institute’s COVID-19 IP freely available.

Doudna added: “Enabling individuals and organizations across the world to work on solutions together, without impediments, is the quickest way to end this pandemic.”

The initiative has also received backing from groups dedicated to removing legal barriers to sharing

Diane Peters,  the general counsel for non-profit Creative Commons and another founding member of the “Open COVID Pledge”, added: “It’s critical that relevant scientific resources are made available to anyone in the world to use and build upon in the fight against COVID-19.

“Creative Commons is especially eager to engage with our global network to spread the word about this effort and garner robust international support for this approach.”

The pledge has also received public expressions of support from organisations across the world, including not-for-profit technology company Mozilla.

Universities unite

Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University have established the “ COVID-19 Technology Access Framework”, a set of technology licensing principles they hope will incentivise and allow for broad access to university innovations during the pandemic.

Each of the universities is implementing technology transfer strategies to allow for the rapid utilisation of its available technologies which may be useful for preventing, diagnosing and treating COVID-19 infection during the pandemic.

Isaac Kohlberg, Harvard’s senior associate provost and chief technology development officer, said: “The coronavirus pandemic demands that institutions and companies worldwide step up to answer the call for solutions that may spare lives, without delay.

“By our commitment to the ‘COVID-19 Technology Access Framework’, we are taking steps to incentivise the mobilization of lifesaving innovations and resources during a time of urgent need.”

The framework guidelines provide for non-exclusive, royalty-free licensing of IP rights for most types of technology during the pandemic and for a short period afterward.

Licensees commercialising these innovations will be expected to distribute the resulting products as widely as possible and at a low cost that allows broad accessibility.

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