Innovation Council Analysis

This paper by Qualcomm outlines key findings from qualitative and quantitative data obtained from 168 women involved in academic innovation. It puts forth a set of recommendations based on the survey feedback, follow-up interviews, and the collective experience of technology transfer professionals who work daily with academic innovators. 

We trust these recommendations will provide valuable insights into concrete actions that can be taken to ensure systemic changes that will foster greater engagement of academic women and other under-represented populations in all stages of the innovation lifecycle. 

Read the full story.

This one-pager by the Innovation Council explains the importance of sound IP management for SMEs, including complementary and hybrid strategies and recommendations for governments. To read more about innovative SMEs, click through the Innovation Council gallery for World IP Day 2021 here.

Innovation Council has created a running list of resources on various issues related to Gender and IP, based on work by Morgan Schreur. 

Click here to see the reading list.

Bio-pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing inputs include: chemical or biological reagents; equipment used in laboratories; microscope parts; equipment for manufacturing such as single-use bioreactors; and the full range of raw materials used for R&D and production of vaccines and other bio-pharmaceuticals, such as guanidine thiocyanate. Researchers use these tools to make scientific breakthroughs, and bio-pharmaceutical companies rely on them to discover, develop, validate, and manufacture lifesaving vaccines, drugs, and therapies – including those necessary to address COVID-19 and future global health crises.

Some countries impose tariffs on bio-pharmaceutical inputs, in some cases as high as 25%. This raises costs and makes it more difficult for fledgling producers to compete. Eliminating tariffs on bio-pharmaceutical inputs could help to resolve some of the current global distribution challenges for COVID-related products, thereby helping to make the global COVID-19 response more equitable, affordable, and sustainable.

Unilateral elimination of COVID-19 related tariffs would provide substantial benefits in terms of the short-term dissemination of pharmaceutical inputs and vaccines.  Ultimately, however, tariff elimination should be made permanent and should cover a broader range of products. This would create legal certainty and predictability for actors along global value chains.

An appropriate vehicle for tariff elimination on inputs could be the WTO plurilateral agreement known as Zero for Zero, for which product coverage should be expanded to include the full range of COVID-19 bio-pharmaceutical inputs. In this respect, Innovation Council has developed a list of HS codes showing tariffs related to the inputs used for developing and producing COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. The list was developed in partnership with private sector actors in these value chains. A list of COVID-19 MFN product examples is available here.

Innovation Council spoke online with experts Dr. Malathi Lakshmikumaran and Dr. Axel Braun to discuss IGC developments and negotiation conversations at the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Both are patent lawyers with scientific backgrounds who shared their insight about patent disclosure requirements (PDR) for inventions that are based on genetic resources (GR) and/or associated traditional knowledge (TK) in different countries. They drew attention to shortcomings of the so-called Chair’s text, which is the basis for the WIPO negotiations aimed at delivering a new WIPO international instrument setting forth a PDR. Drawing from their perspectives from both the biopharmaceutical and agriculture biotech sector, they discussed specific examples of problems that arise when PDR-related legislation is unclear.

Click here for the one-pager and for the full transcript.

In this Q&A, WIPO Director Wend Wendland walks us through the history and key elements of the WIPO IGC talks, providing useful references along the way for those seeking more in-depth background information about the technical aspects. He clears up some common misconceptions about the negotiations and the negotiating text, and calls on all stakeholders to make their voices heard at the Diplomatic Conference in May 2024 in Geneva. Click here to read the full Q&A.

This detailed analysis by the Innovation Council critically examines the proposed international instrument with respect to the patent system, R&D, and avoiding legal uncertainty.  We highlight challenges in achieving transparency, legal certainty, and the impact on R&D commercialization. With insights into the balance between protecting indigenous knowledge and fostering innovative landscapes through the patent system, this report underscores the need for clear definitions and harmonized global standards.

Click here to read our analysis.

The Japanese IP Association, JIPA, recently interviewed Innovation Council Director Jennifer Brant about her work on DEI and intellectual property issues.

See here for the full interview, which has been produced in Japanese.

The 57^th WIPO General Assemblies will take place in Geneva from July 9 to 17, 2024. You may follow the live transmission of available hybrid proceedings online.

See here for Innovation Council’s Opening Statement from Director Jennifer Brant.

Innovation Council put together its opening statement at the May 2024 IGC Diplomatic Conference. The statement emphasized how important it is that negotiators safeguard legal certainty in the patent system as this not only affects both small and large patent owners, but also the organizations they partner with and those that interact with their IP. Three things that will be important to pay attention to include : 1) clearly and narrowly defining the scope, 2) clarifying and confirming appropriate PDR administrative requirements, and 3) excluding patent-based sanctions.

See here for the full statement.

In this Innovation Council Q&A, Dr. Braun — a former Swiss and European patent attorney — discusses the challenges of legal certainty and innovation risks within the context of patenting genetic resources and traditional knowledge and how this might with the IGC negotiations. He offers a unique perspective on the potential impacts on R&D and patent validity, highlighting the critical balance needed between transparency, legal harmonization, and innovation incentives.

Click here to read our Q&A.

In this Innovation Council Q&A, Peter Frampton, co-founder of Wealthvox and developer of the Color Accounting Learning System, discusses his journey to create a conceptual framework that better looks at how accounting and business finance work. It involves the use of color-coding, mapping, linguistic clarification, sound effects, and deliberate sequencing and layering of concepts. He discusses how the innovative system has upgraded corporate financial conversations by helping to analyze clients’ internal financial processes and offered financial tools to high schools, colleges, and even the American Institute of CPAs using the curricula across North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. He talks about the continuous process to apply for patents and how they have been using a number of trademarks and licensing agreements to ensure they are able to share and protect their IP.

Click here to read our Q&A.

In this Innovation Council Q&A with Olivier Sauvageot of Syngenta, key issues around WIPO’s IGC negotiations on IP and genetic resources are discussed. Sauvageot, an experienced patent attorney, delves into the complexities of patenting in agriculture, highlighting the challenge of defining and managing genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge. He underscores the potential impact on R&D, patent validity, and innovation, while advocating for clear, fair, and effective IP frameworks.

Click here to read our Q&A.

Innovation Council released a statement at the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents highlighting how SEPs licensing, as part of a commitment to standardize development organizations, plays as a major success from a tech transfer perspective.

In the field of cellular technology, it has led to accessible, affordable connectivity in devices to achieve pressing societal challenges and SDGs. It also helps provide information and evidence for SMEs and other stakeholders so they can be empowered to make informed decisions for their R&D and commercialization, alongside having options for dispute resolution and litigation.

See here for our full statement.

Innovation Council released a statement to the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents presenting recent research on tech transfer. We highlighted the work we did with two Innovation Council members, Merck Life Science and Biovac.

With Merck Life Science, Innovation Council published a paper called Making Biologics, which found four pathways for building bio-manufacturing and innovative capacity that required collaboration, tech transfer, and IP protection.  One uncovered strategy involved building vaccine production capacity through a process of “backwards integration,” that involved working with tech transfer partners to gain expertise to ultimately help perform R&D. Biovac demonstrated an example of a backwards integration success story through their work.

See here for our full statement.

Innovation Council submitted these perspectives to the ITC investigation of COVID-19 Diagnostics and Therapeutics and Flexibilites under the TRIPS Agreement.

https://innovationcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Innovation-Council-ITC-Submission.pdf

Innovation Council released a piece sharing their perspectives on the IGC Negotiating Text at the start of the May 2024 IGC Diplomatic Conference. It goes over concerns with the text including sections that touch on their definitions, retroactivity, patentability criteria, items of unknown origins, ABS requirements, fraudulent intent, correcting disclosures, and lastly on scope and DSI.

See here for the full perspectives.

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly evolving to provide accurate information and solutions to problems. AI solutions can be extremely useful in many fields of endeavor.

There are various components and aspects of such systems. Currently, there is some uncertainty – especially with respect to patent protection – as to how intellectual property (IP) rights can be used to protect those components along with the outputs of AI systems.

Click here to read more.

The following document is an account of the statement made by Innovation Council at the World Intellectual Property Organization surrounding the role of intellectual property during COVID. We emphasize how IP was crucial in fostering collaboration, investments, and expanding biomanufacturing capacity.

Click here to read our statement.

The following document is an account of the statement made by Innovation Council at the World Intellectual Property Organization surrounding the EU standard essential patents (SEPs) regulation. We provide a summary of discussions that took place in WIPO and highlight common misconceptions about SEPs in the real economy before ending with some key takeaways.

Click here to read our statement.

The WTO Secretariat has updated the joint indicative list compiling information on critical inputs for the manufacturing, distributing and administering of COVID-19 vaccines. The revised version incorporates feedback from industry and includes information on new critical inputs that have been identified.

The “Joint Indicative List of Critical COVID-19 Vaccine Inputs for Consultation” can be found here.

The authors of this paper describe the value of trade secrets to innovative firms of all sizes and the role of trade secret protection in facilitating knowledge flows. At the same time, it identifies several factors that complicate the protection and management of trade secrets in today’s business environment. Many of the factors relate to the business environment itself, which is characterized by networked R&D and open innovation, globally dispersed teams of employees, increased employee mobility, digital storage of data, and the growing value of know-how as a source of competitive advantage – and thus a target for corporate theft.

To overcome the challenges described in this paper, policymakers and industry groups may consider providing training for SMEs, to guide them in using trade secrets as part of their intellectual asset management strategies. Compared to larger firms, SMEs have relatively lower levels of experience with and fewer resources to dedicate to IP management. Innovative SMEs are likely to benefit from training on the appropriate actions they must take to protect confidential business information, in order to be able to enforce their rights before the courts in the event of misappropriation. They could also benefit from insights into how to institute effective processes for managing confidential information internally and vis-à-vis partners.

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Together with Thaddeus Burns, Innovation Council member Merck LS, Jennifer Brant has co-authored a paper on the delay in the COVID response caused by trade restrictions and explains why the WTO must act. The human costs of the pandemic, already dire, continue to mount. Vaccines against COVID have been developed at an unprecedented pace through a series of unprecedented partnerships. But this is not the end of the story; there is still an urgent need to expand vaccine protection worldwide, including through the expansion of biologic drug production capacity.

Read the full story.

This document provides a synopsis of the remarks made by Jennifer Brant, the executive director of Innovation Council, at the TRIPS Council Special Session in September of 2023. Jennifer discusses three of her most prominent works: Unprecedented (2021, co-authored with Prof. Mark Schultz), Making Biologics (2022), and Biomanufacturing Resilience (2023). She noted that the topic of the Special Session – extension of the 2022 TRIPS decision – is really about ensuring adequate health products supply and extending biomanufacturing capacity, for health security.

Jennifer spoke in her personal capacity.

Click here to read the synopsis of her remarks.

WIPO Magazine published an article co-authored by our own Director and CEO of Innovation Insights Jennifer Brant and Craig Moss, EVP, Ethisphere to highlight “Strategies To Improve Gender Equity in IP Development and Commercialization.” It centers around new research diving into the gender gap in patenting and how that has been steadily closing over time. WIPO’s leadership has been crucial in identifying emerging best IP diversity practices and programs. The articles goes into scaling policies and program for governments and IP offices to help accelerate progress and overcome hurdles. The article touches on empowering employees, proactively enhancing diversity on teams that develop and commercialize IP, and overall improving gender equity.

See here for full article.

This slideshow presents key messages from the recent Innovation Council – Bobab online discussion about extending bio-manufacturing networks in emerging regions, notably Africa. The discussion on February 8th featured Prof. Mark Schultz of the University of Akron School of Law, Anissa Boumlic of Merck Life Science, and Simon Agwale of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Initiative. Click here for the video of the event, and click here to review a transcript of the event.

Read the full story.

Innovation Council presents Closing Innovation and Intellectual Property Diversity Gaps: A Global Literature Review. Authored by Elodie Carpentier, Jennifer Brant, Utsav Bahl, Aikaterini Kanellia, the report explores the underrepresentation of women and people from other historically underrepresented groups in patenting and innovation.

See here for the slideshow and to learn more.

Slideshow of five major challenges contributing to the IP gap from the Innovation Council’s presentation on “Policy approaches to close the gender IP gap.

Read the full story.

The Standard Essential Patents Regulation (SEP Regulation) is moving through the EU legislative process, with the draft Regulation now under review by the Parliament. This background document presents the fundamentals of cellular technology innovation, standardization, and IP management. It also unpacks key elements of the draft Regulation. It is intended to serve as a resource for lawmakers and other stakeholders, to provide context for the EU legislative process.

Click here to read the background document.

Click here through Innovation Council’s presentation on “Policy approaches to close the intellectual property gender gap”. Innovation Council’s Jennifer Brant and Mark Schultz presented the findings on 29 July during the plenary session of the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).