The Collaborative Innovation between Patents and Standards: A New Path to Solve the Legal Dilemma of COVID-19 Vaccine Patenting

Abstract

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the rapid development and dissemination of safe, effective, and long-lasting vaccines have become global imperatives. Intellectual achievements must be fully respected and protected in order to have an effective and sustainable stimulating effect. Therefore, the granting of a patent on a COVID-19 vaccine is not inconsistent with its public goods status. However, there are many legal risks and conflicts of interest in the process of licensing the rights after patents are granted, and the current solutions to the legal dilemma of COVID-19 vaccine patents are inadequate. What remains promising, however, is that the collaborative innovation between patents and standards in the development of COVID-19 vaccines is a realistic legal and policy basis for promoting the public productization of COVID-19 vaccines. Therefore, this article proposes a synergistic solution to the legal dilemma of patents and standards for COVID-19 vaccines and suggests that both international legal and public policy support are needed to alleviate the dilemma, that efforts should be made to create a chartered innovation community based on contractual industrial alliances, and that the standard-essential patent system should be upgraded in an open innovation pattern.

Keywords: COVID-19 vaccine, patent, standard, public goods, collaborative innovation, standard-essential patent