The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recognized NIAID TTIPO’s public health-centered patent management efforts with the Patents for Humanity: COVID-19 category award with the USPTO announcing the award on December 15, 2022. NIAID, Scripps Research Institute, and Dartmouth College invented stabilized coronavirus spike proteins, which were essential to the development of the COVID-19 vaccines used today. The vaccines that incorporate these stabilized spike proteins have been instrumental in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. The breakthrough came when NIAID scientists and their collaborators engineered coronavirus spike proteins that enable the human immune system to mount effective responses against coronaviruses. This work cleared the path for the rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccines.  NIAID TTIPO staff had the foresight to protect this breakthrough innovation with patent filings starting in 2016 and employed nonexclusive licensing of ensuing patent rights to accelerate vaccine development and global access, enabling numerous vaccine developers to use the invention. NIAID also facilitated access to this important NIAID invention by partnering with the WHO to promote the availability of the invention through its COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP).