The article considers features of legal mechanisms relevant to decision-making on the use of patented inventions without the patent holders’ consent, as it is established in the laws of France and Great Britain.   Particular attention is paid to allocation of compulsory licensing from other forms of restriction of the patent holders’ exclusive rights, with identification of unique features specific to each directions. Thus, the circumstances and conditions under which either compulsory licensing or other forms of reimbursable use of the invention without the consent of the patent holder, and the characteristics inherited in each legal system of those countries are considered by the study.  

The purpose of the study is a complex analysis of foreign legislation in compulsory licensing and other forms of compensatory lawful use of patented inventions without the consent of patent holders, followed by comparative analysis.   

A wide range of general scientific and special methods of knowledge were used in the research process. Thus, a comprehensive analysis of foreign normative acts in the studied subject was conducted with the specification and systematization on the legal instruments under study.

As a result of the work carried out, key features of the division inherent in the separation of legal mechanisms were identified:

- compulsory licensing and licensing ex officio in the French Intellectual Property Code,

-  compulsory licensing and use of patented inventions for the benefit of the Crown (in the public interest) in the British patent law. 

The comparative analysis of foreign experience conducted on the basis of the research proves the wrong identification of all the legal mechanisms considered and the reasonableness of the division into separate classes of legal relations of compulsory licensing and reimbursable use patented invention without the patent holder’s consent by decision of the authorized state executive body.