News

American University Assumes Stewardship of the Open COVID Pledge

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The Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University Washington College of Law is pleased to announce that effective April 20, 2021, it has assumed stewardship of the Open COVID Pledge (opencovidpledge.org).  The Open COVID Pledge was conceived by a volunteer steering committee in March 2020 and launched on April 7, 2020.  Since then, an estimated 500,000 patents and multiple copyrights have been publicly pledged to the COVID-19… Read More »American University Assumes Stewardship of the Open COVID Pledge

The Open COVID Pledge at One Year: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

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Please join us and the American University Washington College of Law this Wednesday as they host an event for a one year retrospective of the OpenCovidPledge. April 28, 2021 | 12:30pm-3:30pm EDT  | 4:30pm-7:30pm UTC Agenda and registration details.

Internationalizing the Open COVID Pledge: Translations and Outreach

“United Nations Headquarters” by United Nations Photo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 As an important part of our stewardship of the Open COVID Pledge, we are pleased to announce that the Pledge is now available in all six of the official languages of the United Nations: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. This increases accessibility and usefulness of the Pledge to more than 3.7 billion persons in their… Read More »Internationalizing the Open COVID Pledge: Translations and Outreach

Creative Commons to Steward the Open COVID Pledge

We’re pleased to announce today that Creative Commons is taking on leadership and stewardship of the Open COVID Pledge. This transition is made with the strong support and encouragement of the OCP Steering Committee, which will continue on in an advisory capacity as the project progresses. This is a natural fit for Creative Commons given the organization’s mission of enabling sharing, creativity, and innovation, and reinforces our commitment to the… Read More »Creative Commons to Steward the Open COVID Pledge

Putting Pledged IP to work — Identifying IP available under the Open COVID Pledge

Today, the Open COVID Pledge launched a new feature highlighting some of the valuable intellectual property (IP) that organizations around the world have committed to the fight against Covid-19.  Pledged IP covers a broad range of equipment, software, network and device applications useful in healthcare, containment, tracking, diagnostics, emergency response and social distancing.  It includes 3D-printed respirators, touch screens that use ultraviolet light to prevent the spread of infection, a… Read More »Putting Pledged IP to work — Identifying IP available under the Open COVID Pledge

SAP Pledges Free use of its Patents in Support of the Fight Against COVID-19

SAP, a European multinational software company and a provider of one of the largest enterprise software solutions in the world, today announced it is joining the Open COVID Pledge by committing its patents worldwide to solving the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization holds thousands of patents worldwide, all of which may be used royalty-free under the terms of the OCL-P v1.1 license. This license enables entrepreneurs, established businesses, health care organizations and others to… Read More »SAP Pledges Free use of its Patents in Support of the Fight Against COVID-19

WHO Recognizes the Open COVID Pledge as a Means to Advance Research and Science in the Fight Against COVID-19

Today, under the leadership of the World Health Organization, more than three dozen member countries and other organizations announced their support of the WHO’s Solidarity Call to Action. We are pleased that within this statement of principles, the Open COVID Pledge is featured as a mechanism that allows holders of valuable COVID intellectual property to meet the WHO’s call to action by immediately and freely making IP available to anyone… Read More »WHO Recognizes the Open COVID Pledge as a Means to Advance Research and Science in the Fight Against COVID-19

Seagate Technology takes the Open COVID Pledge

Giant data storage and management company Seagate Technology has taken the Open COVID Pledge, adopting the OCL-P v1.1 license for all of its patented technologies to help diagnose, prevent, contain, and treat COVID-19. Seagate’s CEO Dr. Dave Mosley says, “Seagate’s mission is to maximize the potential of humanity. Never has that been more important than during the COVID-19 pandemic. Collaboration is going to be key in the efforts to fight… Read More »Seagate Technology takes the Open COVID Pledge

Top Patent Holders Make Open COVID Pledge

According to statistics recently released by the Intellectual Property Owners (IPO), companies making the Open COVID Pledge were among the top acquirers of U.S. patents last year.  IBM, the #1 patent holder, was issued nearly 9,500 patents in 2019.  Open COVID Pledge makers Intel, Microsoft, Amazon, AT&T, Facebook, Fujitsu and HP Enterprise also place prominently on the list. We congratulate these firms for their commitment to putting their substantial intellectual… Read More »Top Patent Holders Make Open COVID Pledge

The Open COVID movement goes global

The Open COVID Pledge Coalition recognizes and salutes efforts from around the world complementary to our own that also encourage the free sharing of patents and copyrights in an effort to diagnose, prevent, contain and treat COVID-19. Some of these efforts do not identify or license intellectual property directly but instead include calls to action and the adoption of statements of commitment to supporting COVID-19 work. In every case, the… Read More »The Open COVID movement goes global