Crown Use and Government Use

Abstract

Throughout the course of patent law development, compulsory licence has been one of the most discussed topics around the world. Recently, Crown use or government use in the Commonwealth countries has drawn much attention and became an important addition to the discussion. This chapter first looks into the legislative history and provisions in both the U.K. and the U.S. and further introduces some landmark case laws in these two countries that shape the rules respectively. The Crown use in the U.K. has played a vital role in the line of development of this legal concept. The U.S. embodies a similar rule known as government use in 28 USC §1498. In the conclusion, this chapter differentiates Crown use from government use and finds that the legal theories supporting the rules are different and the U.S. is much more relaxed in terms of the scope of use and method recognised for authorisation; this chapter also points out the procedural difference between the civil law compulsory licence and the Crown use and government use.