(a) manufacture, advertising, marketing, use or import, or the holding in stock for those
purposes, of the project to which the patent relates;
(b) use of the manufacturing process to which the patent relates;
(c) advertising, marketing, use or import, or the holding in stock for those purposes, of
the product obtained directly using the process to which the patent relates.
47. The rights conferred by the patent shall not extend to the following:
(a) acts performed in a private circle for non-commercial purposes;
(b) acts performed experimentally that relate to the subject matter of the patented
invention;
(c) the individual preparation of medically prescribed drugs by dispensing chemists, or
acts relating to drugs so prepared;
(d) the advertising, import, stocking or use of the patented product or the product
obtained using a patented process, done on Tunisian territory after the product has been
lawfully brought on to the market in any country by the owner of the patent or with his
express consent;
(e) acts necessary for the manufacture of generic drugs, provided that the commercial
exploitation of the product of those acts may not be engaged in until the term of patent
protection has expired;
(f) use of objects on board foreign aircraft, land vehicles or waterborne vessels that
temporarily or accidentally penetrate the air space, territory or territorial waters of the
Tunisian Republic.
48. Any person who, on the filing date of the patent application or the priority date
claimed for it, was working the invention in good faith in Tunisia shall be entitled to continue
to work the invention personally in spite of the existence of the patent. That right of working
shall belong also, on the same terms, to a person who had made serious preparations for such
working in Tunisia. That right may only be transferred to third parties with the business, the
company or the part of the company to which it is attached.
49. The Minister responsible for industry may, on a proposal by the authorities
concerned, rule that, notwithstanding the grant of a patent, capital goods, accessories and
spare parts relating to the patent in question may be imported, for non-commercial purposes,
in order that the public interest may be safeguarded.
50. Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 67 of this Law, the owner of a patent
relating to an improvement made to an invention already patented may not work his invention
without the authorization of the owner of the patent, who himself may not exploit the patented
improvement without the authorization of the owner of the improvement patent.
Section 2
Obligations Under the Patent
51. The owner of the patent is obliged to work the patented invention within a period of
four years from the filing of the application or three years from the grant of the patent,
whichever period is longer, except where the product to which the invention relates is subject
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