RTI International Joins Harvard, MIT and Stanford as Signatory Supporter of COVID-19 Technology Access Framework

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C — RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, announced its adoption of the COVID-19 Technology Access Framework, a set of licensing principles that authorize and incentivize the utilization of RTI’s available technologies that may be useful for preventing, diagnosing and treating COVID-19 infection during the pandemic.

“As an institute dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice, RTI is fully committed and prepared to rapidly license its technologies to combat the COVID-19 crisis” said Vinay Tannan, Director of RTI Commercialization.

The COVID-19 Technology Access Framework was established on April 7, 2020, by Stanford University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

RTI’s commitments to the Technology Access Framework are formally defined by the statement that follows:

COVID-19 Technology Access Framework

We strongly believe that while intellectual property rights can often serve to incentivize the creation of new products, such rights should not become a barrier to addressing widespread, urgent and essential health-related needs. To address the global COVID-19 pandemic, we are each implementing technology transfer strategies to allow for and incentivize rapid utilization of our available technologies that may be useful for preventing, diagnosing and treating COVID-19 infection during the pandemic. To achieve our common goal, we each individually commit to the following guidelines:

1. We are committed to implementing COVID-19 patenting and licensing strategies that are consistent with our goal of facilitating rapid global access. For most types of technologies, this includes the use of rapidly executable non-exclusive royalty-free licenses to intellectual property rights that we have the right to license, for the purpose of making and distributing products to prevent, diagnose and treat COVID-19 infection during the pandemic and for a short period thereafter.  In return for these royalty-free licenses, we are asking the licensees for a commitment to distribute the resulting products as widely as possible and at a low cost that allows broad accessibility during the term of the license.
2. We are committed to making vigorous efforts to achieve alignment among all stakeholders in our intellectual property, including research sponsors, to facilitate broad and rapid access to technologies that have been requested to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. We are committed to making any technology transfer transactions related to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic our first priority, and to minimizing any associated administrative burdens.

For additional information about licensing RTI technologies under this framework, contact: partner@rti.org.