UAEM - Licensing and patenting practices of COVID-19 technologies

The request was successful.

Dear University of Manchester,

For the purpose of clarity, please adhere to the following definitions when answering these questions:

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,

Sarai Keestra

MTRS FOIA, University of Manchester

Dear Sarai,

I am writing to acknowledge your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 received by The University of Manchester today, our reference as per the subject line.

The University will respond to your request within 20 working days.

NB Due to the current situation with the Covid-19 virus and the University’s response to it, there may be a delay in receiving your response at this time.

Kind regards

Laura Hynds

Laura Hynds | Information Governance Officer | Information Governance Office | Directorate of Compliance and Risk |Professional Services | G0.6 Christie Building | The University of Manchester | Oxford Road | Manchester | M13 9PL | www.manchester.ac.uk

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MTRS FOIA, University of Manchester

1 Attachment

Dear Sarai,

 

Thank you for your request for information received by The University of
Manchester on 26 October 2020 which was as follows:

 

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.

 

The University has now considered your request and our response can be
found below.

 

1.       University of Manchester Innovation Factory’s strategy to patent
COVID-19 related IP, as is the case with all new IP generated at the
University, is based on the specific IP’s potential to create future
beneficial impact.

2.       No.

3.       No.

4.       N/a.

5.       N/a.

6.       N/a.

7.       University of Manchester Innovation Factory is not aware of these
initiatives.

 

I trust this response is of use to you.

 

Kind regards

 

Sharon

 

Sharon Glen | Information Officer | Information Governance Office |
Directorate of Compliance and Risk |Professional Services | G7 Christie
Building | The University of Manchester | Oxford Road | Manchester | M13
9PL | Tel +44(0) 161 306 7549| [1]www.manchester.ac.uk

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We are all responsible for protecting personal data held by the
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