“The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare inherent tensions between the protection of intellectual property (IP) and the health of individuals touched by life-threatening medical conditions. A few examples have even made front page news. Hospitals are searching desperately for ventilator parts while 3-D printing instructions for such parts remain unshared for fear of liability. And potentially lifesaving medicines remain out of reach because their manufacture and distribution on sufficient scale is limited by the threat of patent infringement. The threat of liability for IP infringement also dampens the ability to innovate under emergency conditions, intensifying the tension between the protection of IP and the protection of human lives …”
Heled, Yaniv; Rutschman, Ana Santos; and Vertinsky, Liza, The Need for the Tort Law Necessity Defense in Intellectual Property Law, University of Chicago Legal Forum: volume 2021, article 4.
First posted 2022-02-09 16:00:46
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