As much as patent rights have important, and often detrimental, significance for rights owners, the need for invention collaboration and sharing of findings for achieving a common goal through open innovation is recently growing as inventors seek to:

• Communicate with experts in different areas to help advance research; 

• Help speed up the progress in development of an invention;

• Avoid or at least cut down on the time and money associated with dealing with IP rights; and

• Help simplify licensing.

Read about how open innovation is changing IP rights as researchers seek treatment for COVID-19.