Recital (12)

The Union compulsory licence should also apply to published patent applications for national patents and for European patents, as well as to published applications for utility models. As the process for granting a patent after the publishing of the patent application can take years, targeting only inventions protected by a granted patent could prevent an effective and timely crisis response. In crises, solutions can derive from the latest state-of-the-art technology. Moreover, certain national patent legislation, as well as the European Patent Convention of 5 October 1973, provide for provisional protection of patent applicants with regard to unauthorised use of their inventions and the corresponding possibility for such applicants to license the use of their rights protected by a patent application. For similar reasons, it should be ensured that a Union compulsory licence also applies to published applications for utility models. This Regulation does not harmonise national legislation governing the provisional protection of published patent applications and published applications for utility models. In order to ensure that a Union compulsory licence concerning a published patent application or a published application for a utility model maintains its effects once the patent or utility model is granted, the Union compulsory licence concerning a published patent application or a published application for a utility model should also extend to the patent or utility model once it has been granted, to the extent that the crisis-relevant product still falls within the final scope of protection of those intellectual property rights.