ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: As a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic, many intellectual property (IP) owners have signed on to the "Open COVID Pledge", an agreement that makes corporate and university IP available free of charge for the purpose of facilitating the development of technologies that will end the pandemic and minimize the impact of disease. Joining this pledge is relatively straightforward for already-disclosed IPs. However, few, if any, has considered how to encourage owners of "non-disclosed patent applications" and "trade secrets" to sign on to this meaningful pledge. In other words, so far there is no proposal to extend the Open COVID Pledge for confidential pending patents and trade secrets. METHODS: We propose an innovative and flexible framework to cover both non-disclosed patent applications and trade secrets to mobilize inventors to participate in the Open COVID Pledge. RESULTS: By focusing on immediate publication of the patent-applying technology and extending provisional right to such applications which is subject to the Open Pledge during this pandemic, our recommendations are workable for inventors who would like to pledge their non-disclosed technologies for the detection, prevention and treatment of the COVID-19, in the meantime preserving their IP rights for the post-pledge period. CONCLUSION: This paper offers a way forward to guide pledgers and implementers who are interested in supporting the effort by addressing some of the issues associated with the free sharing of non-disclosed patent applications and trade secrets in the fight against COVID-19.