Enabling Innovation Policies

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 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 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.

InterDigital CEO and President, Liren Chen, discusses SEP regulation in this letter to the editor of the Financial Times. The message is clear: regulators should tread carefully. In his convincing argument, Chen discusses why preserving a balance between innovators and implementers is key and advises the use of market based solutions.

Click here to read the letter.

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.

Merck Life Science has released a paper on trends in vaccine manufacturing in the Asia Pacific Region. The paper includes research from interviews with nearly forty industry executives, plus interviews from research institutes in ten different countries. The COVID pandemic highlighted the potential of mRNA vaccines, with 87% of respondents looking to focus on mRNA vaccines as a critical modality in the future. Furthermore, survey respondents cited process development and technology transfer expertise as key needs when adopting new technology. Merck Life Science considers that it will be some time before mRNA becomes the dominant modality, given the need for production processes and the regulatory landscape to evolve in the meantime. The company expects that most vaccine producers will want to have capabilities relating to multiple vaccine modalities, as they invest to expand facilities and incorporate bioprocessing 4.0.

Click here to read the full paper.

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

This paper by Jonathan Barnett and other IP experts was released back in 2022 – but the analysis is still very relevant today. The authors unpack arguments that have been put forward for limiting what SEP owners can do with their patents, assessing such arguments based on available data, studies, and experience in the real economy. The authors endorse the current FRAND licensing framework, noting that it continues to work well to incentivize innovation and the broad dissemination globally, across sectors, of connectivity technologies. Highly relevant insights for policy initiatives like the EU SEP Regulation, and the forthcoming SEP work program at WIPO. Read more about their paper here.