This paper analyzes the role of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and, more specifically, of patents during COVID times, with a focus on the pharmaceutical industry and COVID vaccines. In this paper, the author scrutinizes some proposals to quickly obtain access to affordable vaccines, such as the IP waiver and the use of compulsory licensing. This paper shows how IPR protection, and patents in particular, play a pivotal role in the fight against the virus. It also recommends that decision makers, industry, and academia focus on the insufficient R&D investment for the development of new medicines, the lack of production facilities and raw materials supply, and the loss of trust in science among some parts of the population, which might have led to the limited and slow supply of COVID vaccines, and which are not necessarily linked to IPRs. For each of these challenges, the author proposes a different solution.

With a ruling of April 5, 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States put an end to the long legal battle between Oracle America, Inc. and Google LLC, recognizing that it is legitimate, as a constituent of fair use, to use the latter’s code of Java SE software owned by Oracle to develop the operating system for Android smartphones. In the article the authors, after a brief overview of the case and exam of the U.S. Supreme Court decision, highlight possible implications of such decision in the European Union legal systems and then analyse whether it is advisable for software that are technological standards to be subject to the adoption of a solution similar to the one created in the patent field of SEPs.

If in 2021 the data created, captured, and replicated across the world is estimated at 80 zB, it should double in just four years to reach 170 zB in 2025. How big is that figure? Here is a simple insight: knowing that one zB (zettabyte) is one billion terabytes (1021), a regular personal internet connection would need more than 30,000,000 years to transmit a zettabyte. Because they are not comparable with common practices, such huge amounts of data are dealt with via dedicated infrastructures and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. Conversely, the development of AI fuels the need for more data.

Prejudgment interest in patent cases has flown under the radar for many years. The $162.3 million award in VLSI has shined new light on it. Though its reasoning appears a bit opaque, the court appears to largely have drawn the right conclusions as a matter of economics. Prejudgment interest should adequately embody the risk/return tradeoff that every investor faces. A damages award is not, after the fact, a risky investment. It is a known and awardable amount. As such, a risk-free rate should be used to bring past damages forward to today every time.

In the era of Industry 4.0 driven by digitalization and disruptive innovations, the objective to manage an IP program for an enterprise is to enable the acceleration of technology- and insight-led business disruptions through effective and efficient IP adoption, thereby driving enterprises’ transformation towards consistent growth.

The rapid deployment of the three COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the United States in 2020 and 2021—developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson (J&J)—involved substantial firm-level collaboration to rapidly complete the multidimensional matrix of steps (planning and implementation) along the entire global value chain from discovery to commercialization. Major advances included: (1) the availability and use of novel technologies; (2) identifying the needed supplies and sources early in the process; (3) quickly establishing and expanding international supply chains meeting regulatory requirements; and (4) speedy scale-up of global production and formulation capacity. A key enabling factor was the vaccine owners’ rapid technology transfer to firms in developing and developed countries.

One dictionary definition1 for copyright is “the exclusive and assignable legal right, given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material."

Not all patents are created equal. Finding patent assets likely to drive substantial value in licensing efforts is difficult. Getting the answer right can unlock substantial value and allow innovators to optimize expected return on investment. But making a mistake can lead to a costly waste of valuable resources.

SARS CoV 2 is a virus that is subject to fast mutagenesis. With the advent of the so-called Omicron variant (lineage B.1.1.529 according to the Pango nomenclature)1 in November 2021, it became clear that the existing vaccines may have insufficient efficacy against said new variant.

The growing shift among public sector institutions and pharmaceutical companies towards equitable licensing of their health technologies is commonly termed “Global Access Licensing” 1 or “Socially Responsible Licensing.” This two-part article uses the term “Global Access Licensing” (GAL) to describe a set of licensing provisions and terms that can be utilized by public sector institutions, including funding agencies, universities, and research institutes, and included in license agreements with industry partners to ensure access and affordability of resulting health technologies in the developing world.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the term Social Ventures / Social Enterprises and show how various proven techniques and activities of a Technology Transfer Office (TTO) can support and grow these activities from their university research source.

The right approach to IP, especially patents in digitization, offers companies, regardless of their size, opportunities to create and protect customer benefits with innovative solutions. At the same time, however, the increasing complexity also increases the risk of infringement of third-party intellectual property rights. For companies that want to proactively develop their IP portfolio, secure freedom to operate, and manage it in a legally compliant, goal-oriented, and consistent manner, the norms DIN 77006 and ISO56005 show ways to manage these processes.