The pandemic triggered various threats to the patent system in various jurisdictions. Some of them were temporary and unharmful but others seem to sustain trends and intimidation against innovators, especially in some fields such as biotechnology.

The panel will analyze and comment on practices including potential restrictive patentability criteria, patent backlogs, compulsory licensing, weak patent enforcement, litigation strategies, and lack of regulatory data protection.

The discussion will include the weight of the TRIPS waiver expansion and WHO pandemic treaty and the central role USTR have in determining IP policies which could have influence in the public and private sectors.  

The mRNA space, especially in the context of the global rollout of the vaccines, also intersects with ongoing global IP policy issues. In many ways, pandemic, also demonstrated how innovators and governments were able to make progress together to improve global health.