or after a certain period of negotiations with the patent owner or offering reasonable conditions to acquire his agreement to the exploitation. (c) Support of national efforts in vital sectors for economic, social and technological development, without unreasonable prejudice to the rights of the patent owner and taking into consideration the legitimate interests of third parties. In cases stated in items (a) and (c), the owner of the patent shall be notified promptly of the decision of non-voluntary exploitation, and as soon as reasonably practicable in cases stated in item (b). (2) Upon the request of the Minister of Health, when the quantity of patented medicines made available fail to adequately meet the national needs, due to their poor quality or if they are offered at a prohibitive price, or if the patent is related to medicines addressing critical cases, incurable or endemic diseases or products used in the prevention of these diseases, or where the invention is related to the medicines, their manufacturing process, the raw materials necessary for their preparation or the process of manufacturing of those materials. In all these cases, the decision of granting non-voluntary license shall be notified promptly to the owner of the patent. (3) Where the patent owner refuses to grant license to a third party seeking the exploitation of the invention, whatever the purpose of the exploitation, and despite the offer of suitable terms and the lapse of reasonable negotiation time. In this case, the party requesting the non-voluntary license shall provide evidence that he has made serious efforts to obtain a voluntary license from the patent owner. (4) If the owner of the patent fails to exploit the invention in Egypt, himself or through his consent; or if the patent was not sufficiently exploited after the lapse of four years since the date of the application or three years since the grant of the patent, whichever comes later; or if the patent owner suspended, without a valid reason, the exploitation of the patent for more than one year. The exploitation of a patent shall be through the manufacturing of the patented product or the use of the patented process in Egypt. Nevertheless, where the Patent Office finds that, despite the expiration of either of the above mentioned time limits, failure to exploit the invention was due to legal, technical or economic reasons 15