Section 2: Transfer and loss of rights

Applications for a compulsory licence under Regulation (EC) No 816/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2006 on compulsory licensing of patents relating to the manufacture of pharmaceutical products for export to countries with public health problems shall be submitted to the administrative authority. The licence is issued in accordance with the conditions set out in Article 10 of this regulation. The order granting the…

Any infringement of the prohibition laid down in Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 816/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2006, referred to above, and in Article 2 of Council Regulation (EC) No 953/2003 of 26 May 2003 to avoid trade diversion into the European Union of certain essential medicinal products constitutes an infringement punishable by the penalties laid down in Article L. 615-14…

The Minister responsible for industrial property may give formal notice to the owners of invention patents other than those referred to in Article L. 613-16 to begin working them in such a way as to meet the needs of the national economy. If the formal notice has not been acted upon within a period of one year and if the absence of exploitation or the inadequacy in quality or quantity…

The State may obtain ex officio, at any time, for the needs of national defence, a licence for the exploitation of an invention, which is the subject of a patent application or patent, whether such exploitation is made by itself or on its behalf. The ex officio licence is granted at the request of the minister responsible for defence by order of the minister responsible for industrial property. This order…

If the subject matter of the patent is an invention in the field of semiconductor technology, a compulsory or ex officio licence may only be granted for use for public non-commercial purposes or to remedy a practice that has been declared anti-competitive following judicial or administrative proceedings.

The State may, at any time, by decree, expropriate, in whole or in part, for the needs of national defence, inventions, which are the subject of patent applications or patents. Failing amicable agreement, the expropriation compensation shall be fixed by the judicial court. At all levels of jurisdiction, hearings take place in chambers.

The seizure of a patent shall be effected by an extrajudicial document served on the owner of the patent, on the Institut national de la propriété industrielle and on persons having rights in the patent; it shall render unenforceable against the seizing creditor any subsequent modification of the rights attached to the patent. On pain of nullity of the seizure, the seizing creditor must, within the prescribed period, appeal to…

1. Any owner of a patent application or patent who has not paid the annual fee provided for in Article L. 612-19 within the period prescribed by the said article. The forfeiture takes effect on the due date of the unpaid annual fee. It shall be established by a decision of the Director of the National Institute of Industrial Property or, at the request of the patentee or a third…

Under the conditions and within the time limits laid down by decree in the Conseil d’Etat, any patent granted pursuant to Article L. 612-17 may be opposed by any person, with the exception of its proprietor, to the Director General of the Institut national de la propriété industrielle. .

Opposition may only be based on one or more of the following grounds: 1° The subject matter of the patent is not patentable under the terms of Articles L. 611-10, L. 611-11 and L. 611-13 to L. 611-19; 2° The patent does not set out the invention clearly and completely enough for a person skilled in the art to be able to carry it out; >The subject matter of the…