76. If the beneficiary of a compulsory license does not meet the conditions on which
the license has been granted, the owner of the patent and, where applicable, the other
licensees may effect withdrawal of the license by filing a petition with the court.
77. Any legal decision taken in connection with compulsory licenses shall be
immediately notified to the entity responsible for industrial property by the licensee. Final
decisions shall be entered directly in the National Register of Patents.
Chapter XI
Ex Officio Licenses
78. The minister responsible for industry may formally call upon the owners of patents
to undertake the working thereof in such a way as to meet the needs of the national economy
or the need to safeguard the environment.
Where the formal notice has not been acceded to within a period of one year, and where
the non-working or the qualitative or quantitative inadequacy of the working undertaken
seriously prejudices economic development and the public interest, the patents to which the
notice relates may be made subject to the ex officio license regime by order of the minister
responsible for industry.
The minister responsible for industry may extend the period provided for in the second
paragraph of this Article where the owner of the patent provides proof of legitimate reasons
attributable to the demands of the national economy.
Where public health interests dictate, patents granted for drugs, for the products
necessary for the production of such drugs or for processes for the manufacture of such
products may, where the drugs are made available to the public at levels of quality or quantity
that are inadequate or at abnormally high prices, be made subject, at the request of the
minister responsible for public health, to the ex officio license regime by order of the minister
responsible for industry.
The State may at any time, for the purposes of national defense or national security,
obtain an ex officio license for the exploitation of an invention covered by a patent application
or patent, whether that exploitation is engaged in by itself or through a third party.
The ex officio license shall be granted at the request of the minister concerned by order
of the minister responsible for industry.
79. As from the day of publication of the order making the patent subject to the
ex officio license regime, any person apply to the minister responsible for industry for the
grant of a license for the working of the patent.
That license shall be granted by order of the said minister on specific conditions,
notably regarding its duration and scope, but to the exclusion of the financial remuneration
payable to the owner of the invention. In the absence of amicable agreement, that
remuneration shall be fixed by the court.
The order referred to in the first paragraph of this Article shall be published in the
Official Journal of the Tunisian Republic. The ex officio license shall come into effect on the
date of such publication.
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