The climate emergency means that technology transfer is not just desirable, it is a pivotal requirement to achieve mitigation to limit warming to less than 2° Celsius and to adapt to the changes this will bring about. It is also crucial to support a just transition. Genuine and rapid technology transfer to developing countries will require legal impediments to be removed, which arguably may compromise the current requirements of intellectual property rights (IPRs). Within this article, we consider the argument to suspend intellectual property protections provided by the Agreement Related to Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement). The argument we make is that this debate provides a distraction from more important concerns to support the transfer of climate change mitigation technologies. This is because genuine technology transfer requires financial, technical, and intellectual support from both developing and developed countries. This obligation falls particularly on developed countries. The argumentative thread in this article underscores that the TRIPS Agreement requirements are not prohibitive in and of themselves, at least when the official text is considered. Despite the agreement being struck to promote property rights, the provisions contained therein do not pose a barrier to technology transfer. Indeed, a waiver of IPRs may have perverse impacts on technology transfer needed for urgent climate change mitigation.