Legal Nature of Compulsory Licensing under Patent Law: Regulatory Measure or Expropriation?

Extensive research has been conducted on expropriation of foreign investment. However, different methods of expropriating intellectual property of foreign investors have yet to be shed light on by legal scholars. Considering that issuance of compulsory licenses is one of the most important measures in this respect, this article shall focus on compulsory licensing through critical analysis of different approaches in this regard, and an attempt will be made to provide a proper response to the question whether compulsory licenses are regulatory measures or expropriation ending in compensation. The piece will make an effort to achieve this through illustration of current stance of the Iranian legal system, domestic and international regulations and pertinent legal cases. It seems that despite the initial regulatory nature of such licenses, one cannot exclude all instances of granting compulsory licenses from the expropriation provisions. Instead, adoption of a case by case approach along with due consideration of the literature of the treaty and domestic regulations in order to determine whether the measure of government in regard to issuance of such licenses is expropriation or not is recommended.