Eu­ro­pean Union aims to es­tab­lish patent workaround in case of emer­gen­cies while try­ing to strength­en its own IP

The Eu­ro­pean Union is look­ing at ways to by­pass patent pro­tec­tions and make it eas­i­er to make gener­ic drugs in cas­es of emer­gency such as the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic, a new doc­u­ment says.

Nor­mal­ly, un­der WTO reg­u­la­tions, the prac­tice known as “com­pul­so­ry li­cens­ing” is al­lowed in ex­cep­tion­al cir­cum­stances and could be ap­plied as a waiv­er to by­pass patent hold­ers. Wednes­day’s doc­u­ment was pub­lished as part of the EU’s plan to shore up the in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty rights of its mem­ber states.

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