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Law360 (March 31, 2021, 5:10 PM EDT) -- A coalition of intellectual property groups want continued U.S. opposition to a proposal at the World Trade Organization that would temporarily waive any IP rights for vaccines and treatments related to COVID-19, saying it would chill research that would help further fight the virus.
In a Tuesday letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine C. Tai, the Intellectual Property Owners Association, the American Intellectual Property Law Association and others expressed their opposition to the waiver, which the WTO's Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights has been mulling for months.
The proposal wrongly "portrays IP as a barrier to rapid innovation, R&D collaboration and ample manufacturing of COVID-19 technologies," when in reality "IP protection enhances these developments," the letter, also signed by the Licensing Executives Society (USA and Canada) Inc. and the New York Intellectual Property Law Association, said. The groups additionally said that they weren't aware of any data that suggests patents are getting in the way of vaccine efforts.
"As we continue to tackle the crisis, should the proposed TRIPS waiver be implemented, it would have an immediate chilling effect on their continued research and collaboration needed to overcome, for example, new variants of the virus, to create vaccines for children, and to develop better delivery mechanisms," the letter said. "Without an IP framework in place mitigating risk and providing confidence to investors, the private sector, and other organizations, we believe this proposal will chill and not assist efforts."
The U.S. and U.K., along with the European Union, were among those that objected to the popular proposal at the March 11 meeting. The IP groups' Tuesday letter urged the U.S. to keep its opposition.
The TRIPS council is mulling a proposal that would waive certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement — which governs international intellectual property rights — for treating, containing and preventing COVID-19, but only until widespread vaccination and immunity are achieved.
Among business groups, strident opposition to the waiver has continued to grow. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned the WTO's new director-general not to "distract" herself with the proposal earlier in March.
And earlier this week, the Chamber and other groups said that the proposed "waiver is as vague as it is broad" and that it "would undermine the global response to COVID-19 and would not achieve its stated goal to rapidly expand vaccines production."
The next regular TRIPS council meeting is scheduled for June, according to the WTO website.
--Additional reporting by Hailey Konnath and Andrew Karpan. Editing by Regan Estes.
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