IP Industry Groups Back US Opposition to COVID-Related IP Waiver

Four intellectual property industry groups, in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, voiced their support for the U.S.'s opposition to the TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organization. The American Intellectual Property Law Association, Intellectual Property Owners Association, the Licensing Executives Society (USA and Canada) Inc. and the New York Intellectual Property Law Association said they wrote to protect the IP rights of their members that have incentivized the innovations that “allowed us to combat COVID-19 and continues to do so.” The TRIPS waiver would waive IP rights relating to the “prevention, containment or treatment” of the novel coronavirus for a limited period of time. The industry groups argue that it has been IP itself that has allowed for life-saving innovations and facilitated the sharing of technical information with appropriate protections. They also suggest that they know of no data that shows IP rights are restricting vaccine development.