World War II-Style Mobilization Order May Carry Legal Risks (1)

Automaker General Motors Co. and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, have offered to make hospital ventilators, and other manufacturers are being called upon by the Trump administration to quickly make 500 million N95 air-filtering respirator masks.

But as companies help government fight the coronavirus pandemic in a potential World War II-style mobilization, they are venturing into a legal minefield over patents.

“I don’t want to be the jerk saying people shouldn’t do things to save people’s lives,” but potential contractors “should have eyes wide open,” said Ranga Sudarshan of Covington & Burling, a Washington lawyer, who ...