On June 16, 2022, the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed to a partial waiver of intellectual property rights related to COVID-19 vaccines. The agreement came on the heels of an all-night negotiating session. The agreement...more
Earlier today, the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO), Licensing Executives Society (LES) International, LES USA & Canada, and New York Intellectual Property...more
Earlier this month, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property of the Senate Committee of the Judiciary, wrote to United States Trade Representative Katherine C. Tai to express...more
Four months ago, the U.S. became one of 100 countries supporting the proposal presented a year ago to the World Trade Organization (WTO) by India and South Africa that intellectual property protection for COVID-19 vaccines be...more
Pfizer and BioNTech Agree to Vaccine Technology Transfer with South Africa's Biovac Institute - As reported by Reuters* on Wednesday (see "South African firm to help make Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine"), Pfizer and...more
The Biden-Harris administration announced on May 5 its intent to support a waiver on intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines. The scope of any potential waiver is subject to further negotiation at the World...more
On 5 May 2021, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced that the Biden Administration would support India and South Africa’s request for a World Trade Organization (WTO) waiver of intellectual property (IP) rights...more
March-in rights in the US were created in 1980, as part of the Bayh-Dole Act. Simply stated, when the US government funds research that results in patents, it obtains rights to those patents. These rights are retained even...more