Suiza

Albania

Patentes (incluida la protección de variedades vegetales)

Follow-up question: Please confirm whether your law, in accordance with Article 27.1 of the TRIPS Agreement in combination with Article 31 of the TRIPS Agreement, considers importation as "working/utilising" a patent (and therefore precludes compulsory licensing, if a product is imported).

According to Article 27 of the Law on Industrial Property (1994), paragraph 1(b): "(2) Where the patent concerns a product, the owner of the patent shall have the right to prevent third parties from performing, without his authorization, the following acts: (a) the making of a product incorporating the protected invention; (b) the offering or the putting on the market of a product incorporating the protected invention, the using of such a product, or the importing or stocking of such a product for such offering or putting on the market". In such cases, it is considered as working patent; so, no compulsory licence can be granted.