Any assignment of the rights deriving from a compulsory license shall be subject to
court authorization, on pain of invalidation.
64. Court decisions which have become final and have been taken pursuant to the
provisions of this Subsection II must be immediately notified by the registrar’s office to the
entity responsible for industrial property, which shall enter them in the National Register of
Patents.
65. The beneficiary of a compulsory license may obtain from the court, on the
conditions provided for in Articles 60 to 62 above, failing a mutual agreement, a compulsory
license for a certificate of addition deriving from the patent itself if such certificate has been
granted prior to the expiry of the time periods stipulated in Article 60 above.
66. Where an invention protected by a patent cannot be used without infringing the
rights deriving from an earlier patent whose owner refuses to grant a license for use on
reasonable commercial terms and arrangements, the owner of the subsequent patent may
obtain a compulsory license from the court on the same conditions as those provided for in
Articles 60 to 62 above, provided that:
(a) the invention claimed in the subsequent patent represents significant technical
progress, or is of considerable economic interest in relation to the invention claimed in the
earlier patent;
(b) the owner of the earlier patent shall be entitled to a cross-license on reasonable
conditions to use the invention claimed in the previous patent; and
(c) the license in respect of the previous patent is not assigned unless the subsequent
patent is assigned as well.
Subsection III
Ex officio licensing
67. Where public health interests so dictate, patents granted for drugs, for processes to
obtain drugs, for goods needed to obtain these drugs or for processes for manufacture of such
products, may, where the drugs are made available to the public in quantity or quality that are
inadequate or at abnormally high prices, be worked ex officio.
Ex officio working shall be decreed by means of an administrative act at the request of
the administrative department responsible for public health.
68. The administrative act referred to in Article 67 above shall be notified to the patent
owner, to the licensees, where applicable, and to the entity responsible for industrial property,
which shall enter it as of right in the National Register of Patents.
69. On the day on which the administrative act decreeing the ex officio working of a
patent is published, any qualified person may request the granting of a so-called “ex officio”
license to work.
Such a license shall be requested and granted in the forms fixed by regulation.
An ex officio license shall be granted on specific conditions, in particular with regard to
its term and scope.
The royalties to which it gives rise shall be left to the discretion of the parties to
determine. Failing an agreement between them, such royalties shall be fixed by the court.
The license shall come into force on the date of notification of the act granting it to the
parties. This act shall be entered as of right in the National Register of Patents.