Webinar: Leonidas Aristodemou, University of Cambridge

Please join us for a webinar on Tuesday the 10th of November 2020 at 11:00 London time i.e. 12:00 Brussels time, 13:00 Athens time. The speaker is Leonidas Aristodemou, Innovation and Intellectual Property Management Lab, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. The title of the talk is "Crisis-Critical IP challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic".

The moderator is Dr. Andreas Panagopoulos. To join us follow this link: https://hello.freeconference.com/conf/call/3011249

This webinar is free and open to all. To participate and for further information, please contact Dr. Andreas Panagopoulos at least a day prior to the seminar.

Abstract: A pandemic calls for large-scale action across sectors in order to mobilise resources to develop and manufacture crisis-critical products as efficiently as possible, in the huge quantities needed. This include digital innovations ranging from complex epidemiological models, artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies, to open data platforms for prevention, diagnostic and treatment. Amongst the many challenges during a pandemic, innovation stakeholders and manufacturing firms find themselves suddenly engaged in new relationships, possibly even with firms that have been competitors prior to the pandemic. Those stakeholders are thus likely to face intellectual property (IP) related challenges. To governmental decision makers these challenges might not appear to be of paramount urgency compared to the many, huge operational challenges to deploy urgently needed resources. However, if IP challenges are considered too late, they may cause delays to urgently mobilising resources effectively. Manufacturing firms could be reluctant to fully engage in the development and mass manufacturing of crisis-critical products. This work in process adopts an IP perspective on the currently unfolding COVID-19 pandemic to identify pandemic related IP challenges. The purpose is to provide a structure for those concerned with steering clear of IP challenges to avoid delays in fighting a pandemic. We discusses IP challenges faced by a number of stakeholders during a pandemic related to the development and manufacturing of technologies and products for (i) prevention (of spread), (ii) diagnosis of infected patients and (iii) the development of treatments. We offer an initial discussion of potential response measures to reduce IP associated risks among industrial stakeholders during a pandemic. We identify and analyse 3 scenarios in which different considerations around IP emerge.