S. 4473 · 116th Congress
Critical Medical Infrastructure Right-to-Repair Act of 2020
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Never voted on. It didn't reach a floor vote before the 116th Congress ended, so it expired. A bill has to be introduced again to be considered in a new Congress.
D
WydenSponsor1 cosponsor · 1 D
0 signed on when it was introduced; the rest joined later. Cosponsors who withdrew aren't shown.
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).
What it does: CRS summary · Introduced in Senate · Aug 6, 2020
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.
Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov
About this bill and sources
Official title: Critical Medical Infrastructure Right-to-Repair Act of 2020
Latest action (Aug 6, 2020): Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Policy area: Commerce · Origin: Senate · Introduced: Aug 6, 2020
Official page on Congress.gov · Bill text (GovInfo) · Status record (XML)
No recorded floor vote found.