The European Commission’s initiative for centralised compulsory licences : an adequate approach with (global) potential?

Abstract

The Covid-19 crises had major impacts all over the world in many different areas. It also triggered legal reforms worldwide. One of these projects is an initiative of the European Commission which seeks to introduce a system of EU-wide centralised compulsory licences for patents. The overall aim here is to make the EU fit to tackle upcoming crisis situations where patents could play a crucial role, mirroring the situation in the Covid-19 crisis. The general concept of the initiative is to take away the problems which the current fragmented system of national compulsory licences creates by consolidating the process on the EU level. The paper will analyse the approach the European Commission put forward with respect to an efficiency benchmark. It arrives at the conclusion that the proposal is overall to be welcomed, while some adjustments should be made during the ongoing legislative process. It will also be argued that the very sensible approach to centralise compulsory licences in the EU could be used in more than just crisis situations. The paper suggests widening the scope to other circumstances to make the most out of the excellent idea. The thesis will also propose to scale the approach of the European Commission up to the global level. It puts forward the concept of introducing a centralised process for the granting of compulsory licences at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In doing so, the paper will also lay out some of the characteristics of the proposed system. It suggests that it should not be narrowed to crisis situations and that the decisions should be taken by a body whose structure could be based on that of the Appellate Body of the WTO.