The Need and Justification for a General Competition-Oriented Compulsory Licensing Regime

摘要

This paper takes an IP-internal approach and strives to establish a general compulsory licensing regime that can be included as an inherent and integral element of IP laws. More specifically, it focuses solely on the aspect of protecting the functioning and preservation of market competition, leaving other public interests, such as the prevention of epidemics and access to information outside its ambit. This is a three-part endeavor. It starts with a fact-finding exercise to ascertain whether compulsory licensing has been "abused." This study reveals that some countries are using utmost discretion in exercising their rights and leeway to impose compulsory licenses.