Moderna Disputes U.S. Government's COVID-19 IP Rights

Massachusetts-based Moderna Inc. issued a Statement on Intellectual Property on November 11, 2021. Moderna's statement is inserted below:

'Moderna has recognized the substantial role that the NIAID has played in helping to develop Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine by including NIAID scientists as co-inventors on published patent applications where they have made inventive contributions.

Under U.S. patent law, there are strict rules for determining who should be listed as inventors on a patent. Therefore, just because someone is an inventor on one patent application relating to our COVID-19 vaccine does not mean they are an inventor on every patent application pertaining to the vaccine.

We do not agree that NIAID scientists co-invented claims to the mRNA (modified nucleotide) sequence of our COVID-19 vaccine.

The mRNA sequence was selected exclusively by Moderna scientists using Moderna's technology and without the input of NIAID scientists, who were not even aware of the mRNA sequence until after the patent application had already been filed.

Therefore, only our scientists can be listed as the inventors of these claims.

This conclusion is supported by the NIAID's patent filings, specifically a separate patent application on February 11, 2020, with the University of Texas, where NIAID scientists claim to have invented a similar subject matter.

As a legal and practical matter, the same thing cannot be claimed to be invented twice by the same people working with two different collaborators.

For those who would seek to twist Moderna's good faith application of U.S. patent law into something else, nothing could be further from the truth. 

Moderna remains the only company to have pledged not to enforce its COVID-19 intellectual property during the pandemic.

Moreover, on September 29, Moderna offered to resolve its dispute with NIAID by making the government co-owners of those patent applications that only listed Moderna scientists as inventors, including the right as co-owners to license the patents as they see fit.

Moderna is grateful for our collaboration with NIH scientists and highly values their contributions. We remain focused on working together with our collaborators to address the pandemic.'

Note: This statement was edited for clarity.