Chapter IX
Contractual Licenses
63. The owner of the patent application or patent may, by contract, grant any natural
person or legal entity a license to work the invention to which the said patent application or
patent relates.
Each of the joint owners of a patent application or patent has the right to grant a license
to work the invention by common consent with the other joint owners.
The license contract shall be drawn up in writing and signed by the joint owners, on
pain of invalidity.
Any license contract and any amendment to the said contract or renewal thereof shall,
on pain of their not being binding on third parties, be entered in the National Register of
Patents after payment of a fee the amount of which shall be fixed by decree.
64. In the absence of clauses to the contrary in the license contract, the grant of a
license shall not preclude the licensor from granting other licenses to other persons for the
working of the same invention, or from working the said invention himself.
Where the license contract provides that the license is exclusive, the licensor may
neither give his agreement to a third party for the performance in Tunisia of the acts referred
to in Article 46 of this Law that are covered by the said contract nor perform them himself in
Tunisia.
65. In the absence of clauses to the contrary in the license contract, the agreement given
by the licensor to the licensee shall extend to the performance of any of the acts referred to in
Article 46 of this Law anywhere on Tunisian territory and by means of any application of the
invention.
66. In the absence of clauses to the contrary in the license contract, the licensee may
not give his agreement to a third party for the performance in Tunisia of the acts to which his
license relates and which are referred to in Article 46 of this Law.
67. If, prior to the expiry of the license contract, one of the following events occurs:
— withdrawal of the patent application;
— final rejection of the patent application;
— final invalidation of the patent;
— forfeiture of the ownership of the patent;
— expiry of the term of protection of the patent,
the licensee is no longer obliged, as from the date of the said event, to make the payments
provided for in the license contract for the use of the patent.
68. In all the cases referred to in Article 67 of this Law the licensee who has not or has
practically not benefited from the license is entitled to the refunding of any payments already
made to the licensor, except where there are clauses in the license contract that provide to the
contrary.
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