Critical Medical Infrastructure Right-to-Repair Act of 2020
Official Titles
Official Titles - Senate
Official Title as Introduced
A bill to amend title 17, United States Code, to address circumvention of copyright protection systems with respect to the maintenance or repair of critical medical infrastructure, and for other purposes.
Actions Overview (1)
Date
Actions Overview
08/06/2020
Introduced in Senate
All Actions (1)
Date
All Actions
08/06/2020
Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Action By: Senate
Committees, subcommittees and links to reports associated with this bill are listed here, as well as the nature and date of committee activity and Congressional report number.
Committee / Subcommittee
Date
Activity
Related Documents
Senate Judiciary
08/06/2020
Referred to
Related Bills (1)
Bill relationships are identified by the House, the Senate, or CRS, and refer only to same-congress measures. Read more About Related Bills.
Critical Medical Infrastructure Right-to-Repair Act of 2020
Related bill
CRS
08/07/2020 Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Subjects (13)
Subject — Policy Area:
Commerce
One Policy Area term, which best describes an entire measure, is assigned to every public bill or resolution.
Critical Medical Infrastructure Right-to-Repair Act of 2020
This bill removes certain intellectual property-related restrictions on repairing or maintaining critical medical infrastructure (i.e., a device or product used to provide medical services).
During the declared COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) emergency, it shall not be copyright infringement for an owner or licensee of service materials (such as manuals or computer diagnostic software) to copy such materials if (1) the copying is incidental to the repair or maintenance of critical medical infrastructure, and (2) such repair or maintenance is in response to the emergency.
Similarly, during the emergency, the prohibition against circumventing technology to control access to a work (or trafficking in circumvention tools) shall not apply to an owner or licensee of critical medical infrastructure if the circumvention is done to repair or maintain critical medical infrastructure in response to the emergency.
During the emergency, it shall also not be design patent infringement if the owner or licensee of critical medical infrastructure fabricates a patented part on a noncommercial basis in order to repair or maintain the infrastructure in response to the emergency.
The bill also nullifies any contract provision that restricts the ability of the owner or licensee of critical medical infrastructure to repair or maintain such infrastructure in response to the emergency.
The manufacturer of critical medical infrastructure shall (1) offer for sale on reasonable terms any tool or information for servicing or repairing such infrastructure, and (2) provide information for making such tools to aftermarket tool manufacturers. The Federal Trade Commission shall have the authority to enforce these requirements.
Critical Medical Infrastructure Right-to-Repair Act of 2020
This bill removes certain intellectual property-related restrictions on repairing or maintaining critical medical infrastructure (i.e., a device or product used to provide medical services).
During the declared COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) emergency, it shall not be copyright infringement for an owner or licensee of service materials (such as manuals or computer diagnostic software) to copy such materials if (1) the copying is incidental to the repair or maintenance of critical medical infrastructure, and (2) such repair or maintenance is in response to the emergency.
Similarly, during the emergency, the prohibition against circumventing technology to control access to a work (or trafficking in circumvention tools) shall not apply to an owner or licensee of critical medical infrastructure if the circumvention is done to repair or maintain critical medical infrastructure in response to the emergency.
During the emergency, it shall also not be design patent infringement if the owner or licensee of critical medical infrastructure fabricates a patented part on a noncommercial basis in order to repair or maintain the infrastructure in response to the emergency.
The bill also nullifies any contract provision that restricts the ability of the owner or licensee of critical medical infrastructure to repair or maintain such infrastructure in response to the emergency.
The manufacturer of critical medical infrastructure shall (1) offer for sale on reasonable terms any tool or information for servicing or repairing such infrastructure, and (2) provide information for making such tools to aftermarket tool manufacturers. The Federal Trade Commission shall have the authority to enforce these requirements.
