legal aspects of cases of compulsory licensing to exploit a patent under the saudi patents law

Abstract

: The significance of patents has increased recently with the successive technological, economic and legal developments. In this context, the Saudi legislator issued the patent law by a Royal Decree No. (M / 27) dated 17/07/2004 in line with the latest requirements, and the accession of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the TRIPS Agreement and the World Trade Organization. This study aims to shed light on the legal aspects of cases and conditions of compulsory licensing, for the exploitation of patents in the Saudi patents law, where compulsory licensing is considered one of the legal restrictions imposed on the exclusive right of the patent owner, because it is granted without the consent of the patent owner in order to confront the abuse of the patent owner in using his right monopoly and for the public benefit. This study will deal with cases and conditions of compulsory licensing, by granting it due to the inventor's failure to exploit his invention or insufficient exploitation, public interest, the anti-competitive practices of the patent owner and the link between inventions. The compulsory licensing conditions are related to the owner and the licensee. In this study, an analytical and descriptive research methodology was used to clarify the ambiguity of the provisions of the Saudi Patents Law related to cases and conditions of compulsory licensing, and show if the Saudi legislator sought to reconcile the interest of the inventor with the interest of society when adopting the compulsory license. Finally, this article comes out with several important results and recommendations.