Certifies that a party or parties in possession of IP will not assert and defend IP rights (typically patents).
Particularly useful for granting developing countries access to essential innovations in health and agriculture, since such agreements offer simple and effective ways of dealing with three major constraints common in agri-biotechnology transfer and licensing:
Nonassertion covenants can be used to circumvent liability associated with licensing.
Nonassertion covenants can make research tools available.
Transaction costs can be reduced: such costs for nonassertion covenants are lower than those associated with bilateral and multilateral licensing agreements.
From a legal perspective, nonasserts are preemptive patent-infringement settlement agreements that are designed and drafted with the purpose of resolving future infringement disputes.
There are no compelling reasons why nonasserts could not become more widely used to foster important advances and innovation that address needs in developing countries.