As regularity becomes regular, research materials are exchanged under equipment transfer agreements (EPAs). MTAs are legal agreements (leases) that govern the transfer of material assets between the parties. For example, in 2005, the University of California, Davis, exported more than 470 MTAs, and this number has increased every year since 2001. At the same time, the complexity of MTAs is increasing dramatically, with restrictions and obligations going far beyond the material itself, data or invention information produced from the material and/or derived materials. As a result, each MTA has begun to accept the complexity of a licensing agreement and a high level of skills and time is needed to ensure that the MTA can be implemented without compromise on the most important principles and not conflict with other agreements. Therefore, an MTA can be a hybrid instrument: the transfer of physical property (through theft and contract) and intangible intellectual property (through patent licensing). To make matters even more complex, provisions of an MTA can define how future intellectual property rights arising from the use of the transferred materials will be allocated. Agreements may, for example, cover the promise to use shares as collateral or to transfer equity investment rights. It may also be possible that the agreements contain less tangible real estate. The agreements may apply to creative rights such as film productions or written works.

When it comes to creative rights, all benefits often include future revenues that can be generated by the distribution or sale of these works. An MTA may have a separate section to define certain concepts such as materials, material use, modifications or inventions. On the other hand, an MTA can define these terms as they appear for the first time in the agreement. In a third approach, an MTA can define the terms that are used throughout the agreement in a separate section of definitions and define terms that are used only in one or two sections, as they appear first in the agreement. In the event of a public health emergency, it will be important to ensure that samples and associated data can be moved, accessed and used for many important purposes, including identifying and characterizing the officer responsible, diagnostic objectives, clinical decision-making, epidemiology and the development or validation of diagnostic tools. Given the emergency context, simple and transparent measures are desirable to protect the interests of all parties. This may include provisions to protect the supplier who sent the samples in good faith to a home. During the public consultation on this instrument, several informed people found that there was no comprehensive international public health framework that regulates access to samples and related data from non-flu diseases. There were widely differing views on the appropriateness or feasibility of developing such a framework. In its absence and given that a rapid response to a public health emergency may depend on the ability to move relevant samples and associated data from one location to another. The transfer of these samples and associated data should be as simple and transparent as possible, while protecting the interests of the owners of the samples and associated data. The instrument echoes the view of many involved in the development of the importance of continuing to work for the “broader public good”.