This page will help readers find information about the intersection of COVID-19 and technology/innovation. Please note that the "Articles of Interest" are no longer being updated. If you have interesting sources to add, or need help finding a current article, please email thompsol@seattleu.edu.
The story of mRNA: How a once-dismissed idea became a leading technology in the Covid vaccine race, Boston Globe, November 10, 2020.
Global Crowdsourcing Can Help the U.S. Beat the Pandemic, Harvard Business Review, Oct. 26, 2020.
A Federal Coronavirus Vaccine Contract Released At Last, But Redaction Obscure Terms, NPR, Oct. 24, 2020.
Oxford Developed Covid Vaccine, Then Scholars Clashed Over Money, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 21, 2020.
Deconstructing Moderna’s COVID-19 Patent Pledge, Harvard Law Petrie Flom Center: Bill of Health Blog, Oct. 21, 2020.
Reimagining Innovation to Navigate COVID-19, Brookings Institute, Oct. 16, 2020.
All Eyes Are on Pfizer as Trump Pushes for Vaccine by October, New York Times, Sept. 30, 2020 (updated Oct. 2)
Regeneron Antibody Cocktail Used by Trump Faces Patent Suit, Bloomberg Law, October 5, 2020.
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We can’t let the WTO get in the way of a ‘people’s vaccine,’ Guardian, Oct. 15, 2020.
Moderna Vows to Not Enforce Covid-19 Vaccine Patents During Pandemic, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 8, 2020.
Call for Administration’s COVID-19 Vaccine Contracts To Be Disclosed, NPR, Oct. 10, 2020.
Capitalism is Broke. The Fix Begins With a Free Covid-19 Vaccine, NY Times, Oct. 8, 2020.
How Operation Warp Speed's Big Vaccine Contracts Could Stay Secret, NPR, Sept. 29, 2020
A Single-Shot Coronavirus Vaccine from Johnson & Johnson Will Be Tested in 60,000 People, Washington Post, Sept. 23, 2020
Vaccine Makers Keep Safety Details Quiet, Alarming Scientists, NY Times, Sept. 13, 2020
1st COVID-19 Vaccine Patent Granted, Chinese Media Says, Law360, Aug. 17, 2020.
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A Covid-19 vaccine, amazingly, is close. Why am I so worried?, StatNews, July 31, 2020
‘A huge experiment’: How the world made so much progress on a Covid-19 vaccine so fast, StatNews, July 30, 2020
U.S. Commits to Buying Millions of Vaccine Doses: Why That Is Unusual, New York Times, July 22, 2020
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Virus Leads to Deluge of Trademark Filings; the Pandemic Inspires Hundreds of Applications that Vary from Serious to Silly. Most Won’t Go Far, L.A. Times, July 17, 2020.
The Retired Inventor of N95 Masks is Back at Work, Mostly for Free, to Fight Covid-19, Washington Post, July 7, 2020
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U.S. Will Pay $1.6 Billion to Novavax for Coronavirus Vaccine, New York Times, July 7, 2020
How a Covid-19 Vaccine Could Cost Americans Dearly, New York Times, July 6, 2020
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Here's How We'll Know When a COVID-19 Vaccine is Ready, National Geographic, June 30, 2020
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Gilead's Covid-19 Treatment Remdesivir Priced at $3,120, Washington Post, June 30, 2020.
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INSIGHT: Big Data in the Wake of Covid-19—A Conundrum for Enforcers, Bloomberg Law, June 17, 2020
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Pharma Collaborations in the Covid-19 Era Come With Legal Risks, Bloomberg Law, June 17, 2020
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Amazon Pauses Police Use of Its Facial Recognition Software, New York Times, June 10, 2020.
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Expert Analysis: Data Collection, Personal Privacy, and COVID-19 Contact Tracing How the Virus and New Tech Triggered Thorough Review and Clarification Surrounding Privacy Laws, Business Law Today, June 4, 2020
COVID-19 Vaccine Funders Urged to Share Work, Bloomberg Law, June 2, 2020
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Intellectual property, innovation, access and COVID-19, Wipo Magazine, June 2020.
Taxpayers Paid to Develop Remdesivir But Will Have No Say When Gilead Sets the Price, Washington Post, May 26, 2020.
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There’s One Thing Coronavirus-Era CEOs Can Learn From Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes, Forbes, May 22, 2020
Innovation Can’t Be Forced, but It Can Be Quashed, Wall Street Journal, May 15, 2020
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Apple and Google are Building a Virus-Tracking System. Health officials Say it Will be Practically Useless, Washington Post, May 15, 2020
Drone’s Watch Over Connecticut Town Cut Short as Many Reject Pandemic Surveillance, Oregon Live, May 17, 2020
The Secret Group of Scientists and Billionaires Pushing a Manhattan Project for Covid-19, Wall Street Journal, April 27, 2020
Contact-tracing Apps Could Help Contain COVID-19 but Raise Thorny Legal and Privacy Issues, ABA, April 23, 2020
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As 3D Printing of Protective Gear Ramps Up, a Free Mask Designed in Seattle is the First of its Kind to Get Federal Approval, Seattle Times, April 13, 2020
How Innovators Are Adapting Existing Technologies to Fight COVID-19, Smithsonian Magazine, April 14, 2020
Alexander Moerchel et al., Identifying Crisis-Critical Intellectual Property Challenges during the Covid-19 Pandemic (Ctr. For Tech. Mgmt, Working Paper No. 1, 2020).
Matthieu Dhenne, COVID-19: Hope for a New World of IP? (Oct. 19, 2020) (preprint research paper).
Gavin Yamey et al., Developing an Aggregator Mechanism for Late-Stage Clinical Trials of Neglected Disease Product Candidates (Duke Global Working Paper No. 23, 2020).
Mitja Kovac & Lana Rakovec, COVID-19 Pandemic, Long-term Incentives for Developing Vaccines and Infectious Disease Market: IP Law Under Stress (Law and Economics of COVID-19 Working Paper, 2020).
Ana Santos Rutschman, Intellectual Property as a Determinant of Health, Vanderbilt J. Trans. L. (forthcoming, 2021).
Jorge L. Contreras et al., Pledging Intellectual Property for COVID-19, 38 Nature Biotechnology 1146 (2021).
Joshua D. Sarnoff, Covid-19 Highlights Need for Rights to Repair and Produce in Emergencies (May 19, 2020) (pre-print research paper).
Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid & Regina Jin, Summoning a New Artificial Intelligence Patent Model: In the Age of Pandemic, Mich. St. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2021).
German Velasquez, Rethinking R&D for Pharmaceutical Products After the Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 Shock, South Centre (July 1, 2020).
Benjamin Tham & Mark Findlay, COVID-19 Vaccine Research, Development, Regulation and Access (June 30, 2020) (pre-print research paper).
Ana Santos Rutschman, The COVID-19 Vaccine Race: Intellectual Property, Collaboration(s), Nationalism and Misinformation, 64 Wash. U. J.L. & Pol. (forthcoming).
Ana Santos Rutschman, The Intellectual Property of COVID-19, in Outsmarting Pandemics (Elizabeth Kirley & Deborah Porter, eds., forthcoming).
Cynthia M. Ho, Avoiding the TRIPS Trap: A Path to Domestic Disclosure of Clinical Drug Consistent with International Norms (pre-print research paper).
Jeremy de Beer & E. Richard Gold, International Trade, Intellectual Property, and Innovation Policy: Lessons from a Pandemic, in Vulnerable: The Policy, Law and Ethics of COVID-19 (C.M. Flood et al., eds., forthcoming).
Protecting the Profits of a Few Could Prevent Vaccine Access for All, The Hill, Oct. 14, 2020.
COVID-19 Crisis and WTO: Why India and South Africa’s Proposal on Intellectual Property is Important, The Wire, Oct. 12, 2020.
Seizing Patents Will Hamper COVID-19 Vaccine Development, The Nashua Telegraph, Sept. 4, 2020
Pharmaceutical Profits and Public Health are Not Incompatible, New York Times, April 8, 2020
Stanford Law School has created a searchable database of memoranda related to COVID-19. If you search "technology OR innovation" you will retrieve articles related to COVID-19 and technology/innovation.
Bloomberg Law Legal News - Coronavirus provides daily news articles about COVID-19. You will be required to log in with your SU email address and the password you established when you set up your Bloomberg Law account. Once logged in, you can subscribe to the daily news compilation.
WIPO Responds to Call to Act with New Tools on IP/COVID, WIPO, May 11, 2020
Compiled by Mike Palmedo
UPCOMING ONLINE PRESENTATIONS
COVID-19 AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Intellectual Property, Innovation and Access to Health Products for COVID-19: A Review of Measures Taken by Different Countries
[Nirmalya Syam] Abstract: The rising incidence of COVID-19 will require all countries, particularly developing and least developed countries, to be able to procure and manufacture the products required for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Intellectual property (IP) rights over such products can constrain the ability of countries to rapidly procure and produce and supply the products required at a mass scale. This Policy Brief describes the measures and actions taken by different countries to address potential IP barriers to access to the products required for COVID-19. Continue reading.
Race Around the World for COVID-19 Vaccines
[Matthew Rimmer] While the Trump administration trumpets Operation Warp Speed’s search for COVID-19 vaccine, it is unwilling to collaborate with the world’s scientists who share their COVID-19 findings and have pledged to make a vaccine affordable and accessible for everyone. Continue reading.
See also: QUT Forum on Access to Essential Medicines. Link to videos.
Covid Lessons - Copyright and Online Learning
[Teresa Hackett] At the end of March, at the height of the global lockdown, UNESCO estimates that more than 1.5 billion learners in 193 countries were affected by country-wide or localized closures of schools and other educational institutions. The closures happened overnight and mid-way through the academic year, leaving no time for teachers and students to prepare. For education to continue, it had to move off-campus and online. Continue reading.
How COVID-19 Reinforces the Need for IP Reform and Research in South Africa
[Tobias Schonwetter] ... The COVID-19 pandemic raises a number of important IP questions and brings to the fore some key deficiencies of our IP frameworks, which are often amplified if laws are as outdated as ours. Addressing these is now more urgent than ever. For me, three issues stand out. First, almost immediately after plans were drafted to provide emergency remote teaching to our students, I received a flurry of copyright-related queries concerning the legality of creating and distributing digitised educational materials, including (parts of) textbooks. It seemed as if all of sudden most of my colleagues and students started to be concerned about the restrictions imposed by copyright law because, logistically, emergency remote learning builds on the legal distribution of and access to digital learning materials. Continue reading on medium.com.
See also: Caroline Ncube in Afronomics Law. The musings of a copyright scholar working in South Africa: is Copyright Law supportive of emergency remote teaching? Continue reading..
COVID-19 puts a spotlight on the Medicines Patent Pool
[William Worley] ... MPP was created in 2010 by Unitaid, an international project for financing HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis treatments. As it approaches its 10th birthday in July, the model has hit the spotlight amid heated discussions about how to make any potential COVID-19 treatments and vaccinations more accessible. In particular, campaigners have been calling for patents — which protect intellectual property — to be pooled in a mechanism such as the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, or C-TAP. Read the full story on DevEx.