Through Resolution dated March 20, 2019, the Education, Science and Technology Commission of the National Assembly (Legislative Branch) in charge of Intellectual Property matters, requested that the Executive Branch include in the emergency declaration the adoption of administrative and technical mechanisms for the establishment of "compulsory patent licenses, access to testing data and access to other technologies for the availability of vaccines, drugs, diagnoses, devices, supplies, and other useful means for surveillance, prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment of people infected by Coronavirus (COVID-19).”
For the local IP office to have a compulsory emergency license, it will first be necessary to issue the corresponding executive decree (Presidency) or ministerial agreement (Ministry of Health) detailing the reasons for the emergency. The validity of the compulsory license will be maintained only while the grounds for the emergency declaration last.
The exploitation of the patent may be carried out directly by the state or a state contractor and it will not be the duty of the IP office to notify the holder of the patent with the compulsory license immediately upon its adoption, since the law establishes that the same will be done “when reasonably possible”.
The owner of the patent on which the compulsory license was ordered will receive financial compensation and may continue to exploit it directly.
The Executive Branch has not ruled on this request so far.
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