Ride-hailing firm Uber make patents freely available to support COVID-19 fight

Ride-hailing firm Uber have announced that they are joining the Open COVID Pledge by making all of their patents freely available to the public for use in the fight against COVID-19.

The group, which includes companies like, Amazon, Facebook, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), IBM and Microsoft holds hundreds of thousands of patents and is offering to grant a temporary licence that enables the public to utilise any of the pledgers’ patents in the research, development, and deployment of medical equipment, network products, software solutions, and other technologies to assist in this urgent public health crisis.

The Open COVID Pledge, launched by an international coalition of legal experts, scientists, and technologists, is an effort that encourages companies, universities, and researchers to make their intellectual property available free of charge for use in ending the COVID-19 pandemic and minimising the impact of the disease. Those who make the Pledge help ensure that uncertainty around intellectual property rights will not slow or impede urgently needed solutions in this critical time.

Tony West, Uber’s Chief Legal Officer, said: “At the heart of Uber’s technology is a desire to serve and support our communities.

“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.”