Patent Act Article 97: Abandonment of Patent Rights, etc.
This provision states that if there are people who would be troubled (suffer a disadvantage) by the patent right being abandoned without their consent, you must not abandon the patent right without their consent.
Exclusive licensees and non-exclusive licensees are working the invention by paying license fees. Since exclusive licensees and others are paying license fees, they would expect that other people cannot work the patented invention. However, if the patent right is abandoned and extinguished in that situation, the exclusive license and the like will also be extinguished along with the patent right. For this reason, a situation arises where other people can also work the patented invention even though they are paying license fees. To prevent such a situation, the provisions of Article 97 have been established.
・The non-exclusive licenses listed in Article 97 are as follows:
Article 35, Paragraph 1: Statutory non-exclusive license for employee inventions
Article 77, Paragraph 4: Non-exclusive license consented to by an exclusive licensee
Article 78, Paragraph 1: Non-exclusive license consented to by a patentee
Among statutory non-exclusive licenses, only the non-exclusive license for employee inventions is specified as requiring consent. This is because those who hold other statutory non-exclusive licenses (for example, a right based on prior use) are in a position where they would be happier if the patent right did not exist, so consent is not required.
・Abandonment of a patent right can be done for each claim.
・Patent Act Article 97
(Abandonment of Patent Rights, etc.)
Article 97 (1) A patentee may abandon their patent right only with the consent of the exclusive licensee, the pledgee, or the non-exclusive licensee under the provisions of Article 35, Paragraph 1, Article 77, Paragraph 4, or Article 78, Paragraph 1, if any such person exists.
(2) An exclusive licensee may abandon their exclusive license only with the consent of the pledgee or the non-exclusive licensee under the provisions of Article 77, Paragraph 4, if any such person exists.
(3) A non-exclusive licensee may abandon their non-exclusive license only with the consent of the pledgee, if any such person exists.
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