Recital (22)

The role of the competent advisory body is to assist and advise the Commission where discussions arise on the need to grant a Union compulsory licence and on its content. To that end, the competent advisory body should support the Commission in taking the necessary steps to identify the intellectual property rights and the right holders concerned. To allow for the widest dissemination of information on the initiation of the procedure for granting a Union compulsory licence, the competent advisory body should contact the national intellectual property offices and the relevant business and industry associations, as well as relevant international organisations. The competent advisory body should draw the attention of such entities to the notice published by the Commission on the initiation of the procedure for granting a Union compulsory licence, containing the relevant information, and should encourage the further dissemination of that notice by any appropriate means. Given that a Union compulsory licence should be granted only to a person or entity having the capacity, including the facilities, expertise and supply chains, to manufacture or market crisis-relevant products adequately and swiftly, the competent advisory body should assist the Commission in identifying potential licensees and establishing whether they meet that requirement. The right holders and potential licensees should have the opportunity to make their views known to the competent advisory body, which should analyse their written comments and invite them to participate in the relevant meetings. Those meetings should also serve as a forum to explore the possibility of reaching a voluntary agreement within a reasonable timeframe. The Commission and the competent advisory body should serve as facilitators in that respect. It might also be useful to invite other actors to provide contributions, in particular economic operators in the sectors concerned, and other relevant entities, such as representatives of academia and of civil society, social partners, and representatives of international bodies such as the European Patent Office or the World Health Organization. Given the importance of expediency in managing a crisis or emergency, consultations and exchanges with the various actors should be carried out quickly and by the means most appropriate to the situation. In order to consider properly all relevant aspects of intellectual property law and, more specifically, compulsory licensing, it is necessary to fully involve in the relevant discussions within the competent advisory body the national intellectual property offices and other national authorities responsible for granting compulsory licences. Each Member State should designate the most suitable representatives to that end. Given its expertise, the advisory body set up under the relevant Union crisis or emergency mechanism is the most competent entity to gather and analyse the available crisis-related information from the Member States and from other relevant bodies at Union and international level. The analysis of that information should provide the Commission with a clearer view of the situation, its characteristics and the way in which it could evolve, in order to tailor the potential Union compulsory licence to current and future needs. As crises and emergencies rarely remain confined within borders, the competent advisory body should engage in cross-border collaboration and cooperation with other crisis-relevant bodies at Union, national and international level. Finally, the competent advisory body should assist the Commission in deciding whether to modify or terminate a granted Union compulsory licence for reasons set out in this Regulation.