Subsection 2: Compulsory licences in the interests of public health

The orders of the Minister responsible for industrial property provided for in Articles L. 613-16and L. 613-17 shall be made following the reasoned opinion of a commission composed as follows: 1° A Conseiller d’Etat, chairman, appointed by joint order of the ministers responsible for industrial property and health; 2° The Director General of Health or his representative; 3° The Director of the Institut national de la santé et de la…

Reports to the Committee are entrusted either to members of the Committee or to members of the Conseil d’Etat, the Court of Auditors, the Inspectorate General of Finance and the Inspectorate of Pharmacy, appointed by order of the Minister responsible for industrial property. The chairman appoints, for each case, one or, if necessary, several rapporteurs. Rapporteurs receive an allowance, the amount of which is set by joint order of the…

The commission may appoint experts whose remuneration, provided under the same conditions as those of experts before the courts, shall give rise to a fee order by the chairman of the commission.

In the cases provided for in Article L. 613-16, the matter is referred to the commission by reasoned decision of the Minister responsible for industrial property, taken at the request of the Minister responsible for public health. This decision is notified, within forty-eight hours, with its reasons, to the owner of the patent and, where applicable, to the holders of licences on this patent entered in the National Patent Register,…

The owner of the patent and the licensees may, within fifteen days of receipt of the notification provided for in the preceding article, or, if the notification has not reached them, following the publication provided for in the same article, send their observations to the commission.

The rapporteur’s proposals and the file compiled by him shall be communicated to the owners of the patent and, where appropriate, to the licensees. The President shall lay down the conditions, date and form of this communication and the period within which interested parties shall be allowed to submit their observations.

The Commission shall give its decision within two months of the date on which the decision referred to it is received by its secretariat.

The order provided for in Article L. 613-16 shall be adopted immediately after the opinion of the Committee. The patent owner, licensees and the Director General of the Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle shall be notified of the decision. It shall be entered automatically in the National Patent Register.

The application for an operating licence provided for in Article L. 613-17 is sent to the Minister responsible for industrial property. It shall indicate: 1° The surname, first names, profession, address and nationality of the applicant and, where applicable, the name of the person responsible for representing or assisting the applicant; 2° The patent for which the licence is requested; 3° Proof of the applicant’s qualifications, particularly from a legal,…

Within a maximum period of two months from receipt of the request, the committee referred to in Article R. 613-10 gives its opinion on the conditions for granting the exploitation licence, particularly as regards its duration and scope. This opinion is notified to the licence applicant as well as to the patent owner and, where applicable, to the holders of licences entered in the National Patent Register. The Chairman of…