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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Government Interference in Patents

Here are 2 instances when the government, by virtue of its police and eminent domain powers, can interfere with the rights of the patent holder without his consent.

Exploitation

The government, or third persons it so authorizes, can exploit an invention without the patent holder's consent if the following requisites:

1.) It is required by public interest (national security, etc.)
2.) The patent holder's way of exploiting his invention is anti-competitive (this is determined by a judicial or administrative body)

The owner of the patent is, of course, entitled to just compensation.

Compulsory Licensing

A person who is capable of exploiting the invention in question can be granted the license by the Director of Legal Affairs to exploit it, even if against the patent holder's wish, if any of the following circumstances are present:

1.) National emergency or similar circumstances that are extremely urgent
2.) Public interest requires
3.) A judicial or administrative body has found the patent holder's exploitation of the invention to be anti-competitive (see exploitation)
4.) The invention is used publicly, but not commercially, and without a satisfactory reason
5.) The invention isn't worked in the Philippines on a commercial scale without satisfactory reason, even if it can be worked on such a scale

In all instances, the patent holder is entitled to just compensation.

Instances 1 to 4 can be raised any time after the patent is granted. 5, on the other hand, can't be invoked until 4 years after the patent holder applied for the patent, or 3 years after the patent was issued, whichever happens last. Also, if the invention wasn't worked in the Philippines but was successfully worked in another country, the government can't deprive the patent holder of his license.

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