A presentation of compulsory licensing

摘要

Compulsory licences are licences that are granted by a government to use patents, copyrighted works or other types of intellectual property. The United States government has several specific statutes for compulsory licensing covering a wide range of topics, as well as more general authority for compulsory licensing under antitrust and eminent domain laws. Other countries have their own approaches to compulsory licensing. Compulsory licences are an essential government instrument to intervene in the market and limit patent and other intellectual property rights in order to correct market failures. The authority to issue a compulsory licence is important, even when the right is not exercised, because it may temper the exercise of market power or the abuse of a patent.