An Analysis of Life Tech Related IPRs : A comparison study on Pharmaceutical vs. Non-Pharmaceutical Patents

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presents an unprecedented challenge to global public health. Since the deadly virus spread out across the world rapidly, several countries experienced a collapse in their medical care systems. Not only developing countries, but developed countries as well have been suffering from a lack of medicines, hospital beds, doctors/nurses, and medical machines and equipment. Under these circumstances, managing the intellectual property rights (IPRs) of vaccines, medicines, and medical machines and equipment has become a big issue. Since developing a new product in the medical industry takes a long time and requires a huge amount of investment, the IPRs of vaccines, medicines, medical machines and equipment are highly protected. However, under national emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, how should the IPRs of these products be dealt with? This study analyzed how to handle medical IPRs, focusing on the medical machines and equipment industry. For this purpose, this study first provided an overview of the current status of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide as well as the medical machines and equipment industry. Next, this study examined patent regulations and governmental policies, along with citizens' and industries' movements to "not to exercise"IPRs. This article presents potential solutions and/or has implications for the post-COVID-19 era and the "New Normal"era with COVID-19. © 2022 IEEE.