TIPS^®  Taiwan Intellectual Property Special

Feature

Compulsory license to patented drugs

Although the current law contained provisions for compulsory licenses, no such license had ever been granted. The 2008 amendment contains new rules to make it more likely that the government may do so. If a patent owner, without justification, has not exploited or sufficiently exploited a patent three years after the patent was granted, the government “for the purpose of public health” (Article 50), may grant a compulsory license to a party qualified to exploit the patent. A compulsory license may also be issued if it is judicially or administratively determined that the patent owner used the patent in an anticompetitive manner (Article 48).