Can Patent Pools Help Defeat AIDS?

Medicines that fight HIV and AIDS have made huge strides in the past decade.  However, Stop AIDS Societies published an article this morning that mentioned the potential benefits patent pools may have on the advancement of HIV and AIDS medications.  As the article states, there is currently a push for a European patent pool to be established under the name UNITAID.  But, what would be the potential effects if the same patent pool concept was brought to America for AIDS medication?

The first difference a patent pool would make is reducing the cost of drugs.  Since patents give a company an exclusive right to produce a drug for the duration of the patent, they are free to charge higher prices without the fear of competition.  Patent pools would allow different drug manufacturers to produce their own versions of the patented drugs, bringing down the prices.

Another difference is that patent pools may make medications easier to take.  For instance, people on HIV treatments may have to take different pills at different times of the day.  Doing so can be rather tough, and may restrict patients from different activities.  If a company wanted to combine three or more drugs into one easy-to-take pill, it would need to enter negotiations with all three patent holders.  Patent pools would give companies the access to all of the patents they need, and after paying a royalty fee, the process of combining the drugs would be much easier.

Yet, in order for a patent pool to work well, many companies must join.  If only a handful of companies join the pool will not be successful, as the pool is only as strong as the patents they possess.  One barrier to pharmaceutical companies joining the pool is that at the end of the day, companies are a business.  They may be hard-pressed to give up an extremely high amount of money to pursue altruistic goals.

Lawsuits Making You Hot Under the Collar? Jump in the Patent Pool

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has announced a two year pilot program with Via Licensing, to aid in the development of patent pools.  The collaboration will encourage intellectual property holders to establish joint licensing programs, through which they can offer licenses and royalty rates for all patents involved in the poll, Cnet News reported.

The roles the two companies will take on have also been defined.  Apparently, Via will facilitate negotiations with the participating companies, while the director of new business ventures for IEEE, Edward Rashba, stated his company’s role would be to “build awareness.”

To put the agreement in simple terms, Rashba said that “if you’re an implementer you have a one-stop shop to get all the licenses you need to develop your product.”  He also said, “We feel we have the opportunity to address some of the key challenges facing the technology industry.”

One of the main problems concerning the technology industry at the moment is the threat of costly patent lawsuits.  Last month we reported on RPX, which is a new company that buys patents with the intent of providing licenses to their clients.  Companies pay an annual fee, and several big names like IBM and Cisco Systems have already signed up.  As far as patent pools are concerned though, they have not proven to be a very common way of alleviating all of the licensing complications.  Only about a dozen high-profile patent pools exist, and eight of them are administered by Via.

Due to the difficulty and the time it takes to develop a patent pool, Rashba stated that the goal of the agreement is to form one patent poll by the end of two years.