UAEM - Licensing and patenting practices of COVID-19 technologies

The request was successful.

Dear University of Leicester,

For the purpose of clarity, please adhere to the following definitions when answering these questions:
Definitions
Low and middle income country: A country that is defined as ‘low’, ‘lower-middle’ and ‘upper-middle’ income by the World Bank for the year 2018. Income status defined by GNI per capita.
Source: World bank, available online [https://tinyurl.com/y5dwc2qv]
A patent grants an inventor the exclusive rights to his or her invention. A patent holder can stop other people from selling, manufacturing, producing, or using the invention for a certain period of time.
Source: Upcouncil, available online [https://www.upcounsel.com/what-is-a-pate...
Licence: Permission for the licensee to use the intellectual property rights
Source: TaylorWessing, available online [https://www.taylorwessing.com/download/a...
Exclusive Licence: A licence that allows only the named licensee to exploit the relevant IP rights, the licensor is also excluded from exploiting these IP rights.
Non-Exclusive Licence: A licence that grants any number of licensees to exploit the IP.
Source: TaylorWessing, available online [https://www.taylorwessing.com/synapse/co...
Health Technology: ‘Health technology as defined by the WHO: “A health technology is the application of organized knowledge and skills in the form of devices, medicines, vaccines, procedures and systems developed to solve a health problem and improve quality of lives.’
Source: WHO, available online [https://www.who.int/health-technology-as...
START FOI request:
Q1. Can you release your internal strategy regarding licensing and patenting of COVID-19 related health technologies?
Q2. Does the institution have a formal policy on licensing and patenting of COVID-19 related technologies? If yes, please provide a link or PDF to the relevant policy document.
Q3. Has the university considered updating their strategy regarding the licensing and patenting of health technologies since the start of the pandemic?
Q4. Please provide an Excel spreadsheet with headings as displayed below with all the COVID-19 related health technologies LICENSED by the university AND specify which countries they were licensed in AND specify whether they are exclusive or non-exclusive licenses.
Health Technology Licensed | Country of Licensing | Type of License (Exclusive or Non-Exclusive)
Q5. Please provide a list of patents granted to your organization for any COVID-19 related health technologies listed by patent family, indicating countries/regions in which the patent has been granted.

Q6. Does the institution have any plans on signing up to the Open-COVID pledge (https://opencovidpledge.org/) or any similar initiative that seeks to minimise intellectual property rights barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic? If yes, please specify.

Q7. Is the institution considering the licensing of COVID-19 related health technologies to the Covid Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) or the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) during the pandemic? If yes, please specify.

END FOI request.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me by email.

Yours faithfully,

Kene Okwunze

1 Attachment

Dear Kene,

 

I write to acknowledge receipt of your request, dated 26^th October 2020.

 

Please note the latest date by which the University must respond under the
terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is 23^rd November 2020.

 

I will arrange for the information to which you are entitled under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 to be supplied to you as soon as
reasonably possible, and in any event within the period set out by the
Act.

 

Please note that due to the Covid 19 virus and with many staff working
from home, it may take a little longer than normal for us to respond.

 

If you have any queries regarding your request please do not hesitate to
contact me.

 

Kind regards

 

Faye Biddles

Senior Information Assurance Officer

Legal & Information Assurance Services

E: [1][email address]

W: [2]www.le.ac.uk

[3]EMSig-450x60px-CofC300

Follow us on [4]Twitter or visit our [5]Facebook page.

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not the intended recipient please accept our apologies; please do not
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deleting it.  Thank you for your co-operation.

 

 

References

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1 Attachment

Dear Kene,

 

I write in regards to your request, received 24 October 2020, made under
the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

Your request:

Q1. Can you release your internal strategy regarding licensing and
patenting of COVID-19 related health technologies?

Q2. Does the institution have a formal policy on licensing and patenting
of COVID-19 related technologies?  If yes, please provide a link or PDF to
the relevant policy document.

Q3. Has the university considered updating their strategy regarding the
licensing and patenting of health technologies since the start of the
pandemic?

Q4. Please provide an Excel spreadsheet with headings as displayed below
with all the COVID-19 related health technologies LICENSED by the
university AND specify which countries they were licensed in AND specify
whether they are exclusive or non-exclusive licenses.

Health Technology Licensed | Country of Licensing | Type of License
(Exclusive or Non-Exclusive)

Q5. Please provide a list of patents granted to your organization for any
COVID-19 related health technologies listed by patent family, indicating
countries/regions in which the patent has been granted.

Q6. Does the institution have any plans on signing up to the Open-COVID
pledge
([1]https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...)
or any similar initiative that seeks to minimise intellectual property
rights barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic? If yes, please specify.

Q7. Is the institution considering the licensing of COVID-19 related
health technologies to the Covid Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) or the
Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) during the pandemic? If yes, please specify.

 

Our response:

Q1. We do not have an internal strategy specifically for licensing and
patenting of COVID-19 related health  technologies.

Q2. No, we do not have a formal policy.

Q3. No, our licensing practices already consider humanitarian use.

Q4. The University of Leicester has no Covid-19 related licenses..

Q5. None. 

Q6. Not at present.

Q7. Not at present.

 

I trust that this satisfies your request. Should you have any concerns, or
wish to complain or appal about any aspect of this response then I the
first instance please write to the University’s Data Protection Officer,
Liz Taoudi, by emailing: email [2][email address].

 

Please be aware that it is also your legal right under Section 50 of the
Freedom of Information Act, to apply to the Information Commissioner for a
decision whether a request for information made to the University has been
dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the Act.  It should be
noted that there is a requirement that there will be no undue delay in
making the application and there is an expectation that the complainant
will have exhausted the University's internal complaints procedure.

 

Complaints to the Information Commissioner should be addressed to:

 

FOI Compliance Team (Complaints)

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Kind regards

 

Kind regards

 

Faye Biddles

Senior Information Assurance Officer

Legal & Information Assurance Services

E: [3][email address]

W: [4]www.le.ac.uk

[5]EMSig-450x60px-CofC300

Follow us on [6]Twitter or visit our [7]Facebook page.

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential.  If you are
not the intended recipient please accept our apologies; please do not
disclose, copy, or distribute information in this email nor take any
action in reliance on its content: to do so is strictly prohibited and may
be unlawful.  Please inform us that this message has gone astray before
deleting it.  Thank you for your co-operation.

 

 

References

Visible links
1. https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. mailto:[email address]
4. https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...
6. https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...
7. https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...