IP and Access to COVID-19-relevant Medicines : in Search of an Optimal Legal Framework

Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Prace z Prawa Własności Intelektualnej 2020, nr 4, s. 141-163.

Współautorstwo: Lenarczyk, Gabriela

In light of the global nature of the pandemic, and its severe social and economic consequences, it is crucial to create a well-weighted legal framework regulating access to COVID-19 medicines. This article presents and assesses the possible legal instruments suitable for such a framework, as well as depicts up-to-date developments in both domestic legal orders and at the international level. We analyse public law regulations allowing access to IP protected goods under exceptional circumstances: compulsory licenses for domestic use and for export, government use, and missing waivers of data exclusivity, and identify legal and non-legal problems concerning compulsory access instruments. We then discuss models of sharing access to intellectual property through private ordering - namely, patent pools and patent pledges - and their role in facilitating management of IP rights over health innovation. The article concludes with postulates for a proper IP law response to the current pandemic situation.