Article 1 — Objective and subject matter

This Regulation has the objective of ensuring that a Union compulsory licence may be granted in the context of a crisis or emergency affecting the Union. To that end, this Regulation lays down rules on the conditions and the procedure for granting a Union compulsory licence for intellectual property rights that are necessary for the supply of crisis-relevant products to the Member States in the context of a crisis or emergency mode which has been declared pursuant to a crisis or emergency mechanism provided for in a Union legal act listed in the Annex (a Union crisis or emergency mechanism). This Regulation provides that a Union compulsory licence is granted in the public interest and as a measure of last resort where other means, including voluntary agreements to use a protected invention that concerns crisis-relevant products, could not ensure access to those products.