Eric Steuer

AT&T commits its patents to the world via the Open COVID Pledge

AT&T has joined the Open COVID Pledge, making its patents available to the public under the terms of our OCL-P 1.1 license for the purposes of facilitating innovations that might help in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the post by Scott Mair, AT&T’s President of Technology & Operations, for more details.

With the Open COVID Pledge, we’re also committing our patents to the world, doing what we can to accelerate work on medical equipment, network products, software and other technology that might be useful. You can find the terms and conditions of the patent pledge AT&T Communications has made here. We generate roughly 5 patents every business day at AT&T, and I’m hopeful ours can be helpful in this initiative.

We’re working every day with companies, universities, and research institutions around the world to make their intellectual property openly available to the public so that it can be freely and legally used in the battle against COVID-19. If you work with or represent an organization that would like to make the Pledge, please contact us at opencovidpledge@gmail.com.

NASA JPL supports the Open COVID Pledge + makes respirator designs freely available

We’re happy to count NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as a supporter of the Open COVID Pledge.

Additionally, we’re excited to see that JPL has released the designs for three different types of respirators on Github under the permissive Apache License 2.0, making these resources available to anyone to use.

These designs, instructions, STL files, and JPL’s initial test data are released to Open Source with the hope that companies and individuals who have access to 3D printers, and who want to help, can print or create these for those who need them. … We expect and hope that these designs will be commented on and improved by everyone during and after this pandemic.

We welcome endorsements from groups that support our mission to remove barriers to the use of intellectual property with the potential to help end and mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. If your organization is interested in being a Supporter of the Open COVID Pledge—or if you’re interested in joining as a Pledgor by licensing your IP to the public for use in fighting the pandemic—please email us at opencovidpledge@gmail.org for info.

NJIT makes novel test swab technology available via the Open COVID Pledge

Some good news: New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has joined the Open COVID Pledge, making its novel test swab technology widely available free of licensing fees. By licensing this IP to the public, NJIT is making it easy and legal for manufacturers around the world to use it to create much-needed testing supplies. From NJIT’s statement:

The developers, from NJIT’s Additive Manufacturing Lab (AddLab), are posting the design on the National Institute of Health’s 3D Print Exchange website, which provides technology related to biomedical science that is readily compatible with 3D printers. By making the pledge, NJIT invites manufacturers, large and small, to make use of our technology to address the public health crisis. To learn more about the swab test, click here.

We’re glad to see NJIT stepping up to be the first university to make the Pledge. If you work with or represent a university (or any organization with intellectual property that might be utilized to fight COVID-19) and you’re interested in joining the Open COVID Pledge, email us at opencovidpledge@gmail.org.

Uber joins the Open COVID Pledge

We’re happy to announce that Uber has joined the Open COVID Pledge and is making all of its patents available to the public, free of charge, for use in ending the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has chosen to use our OCL-P (Open COVID License – Patent 1.1) license to grant permission to use its IP.

Tony West, Uber’s Chief Legal Officer, said in a statement: “The Open COVID Pledge allows us to empower innovators and scientists and to help them create solutions that might put an end to this global crisis.”

We encourage other companies with intellectual property that might be used or built upon in the fight against COVID-19 to also make the pledge. For more information about how to join our effort, read our page about Making and Implementing the Open COVID Pledge or email us at opencovidpledge@gmail.org.