Legislative Implementation of Flexibilities - Tunisia

Title:	Articles 69- 70, 78 and 80 of the Patents Law No. 2000-84 of 24/08/2000
Field of IP:	Patents
Type of flexibility:	Compulsory licenses and government use
Summary table:

Provisions of Law

69. Any interested party may, after the expiry of the period provided for in Article 51 of this Law, obtain a compulsory license at any time in any of the following cases:

- where the invention to which the patent relates has not started to be worked industrially in Tunisia, or where no real and effective preparations have been made for such working, within the period provided for in Article 51 of this Law;

- where the product which is the subject matter of the invention has not been marketed in sufficient quantities to meet the needs of the Tunisian market;

- where the industrial or commercial exploitation of the invention to which the patent relates has been abandoned for more than three years in Tunisia.

70. Any application for the grant of the compulsory license shall be filed with the competent court.

The applicant for a compulsory license shall provide proof that he has already sent the owner of the patent a registered letter with advice of receipt to request a contractual license, but has not been able to obtain such a license on reasonable terms and conditions or within a reasonable period. He shall also supply proof that he capable of exploiting the invention effectively and conscientiously.

In no event shall a compulsory license for non-working or insufficient working be granted if the owner of the patent provides evidence of a legitimate excuse.

The compulsory license shall be non-exclusive. The rights deriving from the license may only be transferred together with the business, the company or the part of the company to which they are attached.

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.

80. The ex officio license shall be non-exclusive. The rights deriving from that license may only be transferred together with the business or the company or part of the company to which they are attached.