During the Great Recession of the late 2000s, Rahm Emmanuel, President Obama’s then-chief of staff famously stated, “Never allow a good crisis to go to waste. It’s an opportunity to do the things you once thought were impossible.”
Unfortunately, some large high-tech companies who have long sought to weaken the patent system to support their business models are now embracing that Machiavellian mantra as they seek to use the threat of the coronavirus pandemic to undermine patent rights — not just for drug manufacturers, but for all inventors.
