US election 2020: five IP stories from the year

With several key states yet to declare, the US election is going to the wire – and may not even be decided today.

While you wait, Managing IP brings you five articles from 2020 that are relevant to the election. 

We will bring you more coverage when we know whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden will be the next US president. 

Just a week before election day, reporter Charlotte Kilpatrick spoke to in-house counsel about how politics has attempted to chip away at patent rights in the pharma industry.

Sources said that while the result won’t have a dramatic impact on patents, they are keeping an eye on how politics could shape the pharma patent debate in the future nonetheless.

Americas editor Patrick Wingrove spoke to USPTO director Andrei Iancu, whom Trump appointed in 2017. 

In the interview, Iancu set out his hopes for the office, particularly in diversity and inclusion, and his proudest accomplishments since taking office in 2018.

In October, Patrick Wingrove revealed that the head of the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division would step down after Trump’s first term regardless of the election result.

Makan Delrahim later reflected on his tenure as he prepares to depart – probably for the private sector.

Long before election day, reporter Rani Mehta surveyed more than 50 in-house counsel on the state of the US patent landscape.

Among other findings, the survey showed that respondents wanted to see more remote hearings in the future and that Delaware (which happens to be Biden's home state) was their preferred court to litigate in.

As part of the survey in May, Rani Mehta found that Trump had taken an early edge over Biden, at least when it came to IP matters. 

When asked which man's IP views were better for their business, 20% voted Trump, 11% picked Biden, and the remainder either didn't know or picked neither candidate.