“Property rights are not just good for the economy, they save lives”, Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform said, speaking at Innovating the Future: Celebrating 2021 World IP Day, sponsored by the Property Rights Alliance. Norquist would go on to conclude his brief opening remarks by lamenting, “the damage that would be done if some of the critics of intellectual property have their way.” Norquist was implicitly referring to an IP waiver proposal by South Africa and India, which would allow nations to ignore patent rights relating to COVID-19 related innovations, particularly vaccines. This waiver of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is a truly bad idea, and one addressed head on by Andrei Iancu, senior adviser to the Renewing America Innovation Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

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