INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Intel, Mozilla, Creative Commons and a number of other organizations have joined the Open COVID Pledge in an effort to make intellectual
property (IP) available in the fight against Covid-19.To support the pledge's goal, companies, institutions and universities will give free
licenses to their patents, copyrights and other property rights to anyone developing technologies to aid in the diagnosis, prevention or
treatment of the virus.The licenses will be effective from December 1, 2019 and will last until a year after the WHO declares that the
pandemic is officially over.Companies that make the pledge will be required to adopt the Open COVID license, create a custom license that
accomplishes the intent of the pledge or identify existing licenses that support the pledge's goal.The Open COVID Pledge is intended to
prevent researchers and entrepreneurs from being sued for any tools they create during the pandemic
Once the world returns to normal, hopefully companies will be able to work together to come up with commercially reasonable license terms,
though they can also reassert their IP rights if they choose.Director of the Stanford University program in law, science and technology,
the Open COVID Pledge has received expressions of support from DLA Piper, Unified Patents, the Idea Laboratory for Intellectual Property,
Fabricatorz Foundation, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, the University of Utah S
Quinney College of Law and the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University Washington College of
Law.Executive vice president and general counsel at Intel, Steven Rodgers noted in a blog post that the chipmaker is making its IP portfolio
available to them will save lives
