Section 52

Any contract for the supply of a patented product or licence to work a patented invention, or contract relating to any such supply or licence, may at any time after the patent or all the patents by which the product or invention was protected at the time of the making of the contract or granting of the licence has or have ceased to be in force, and despite anything to the contrary in the contract or licence or in any other contract, be determined, to the extent (and only to the extent) that the contract or licence relates to the product or invention, by either party on giving 3 months’ notice in writing to the other party.

In subsection (1), “patented product” and “patented invention” include respectively a product and an invention which is the subject of an application for a patent, and that subsection applies in relation to a patent by which any such product or invention was protected and which was granted after the time of the making of the contract or granting of the licence, on an application which had been filed before that time, as it applies to a patent in force at that time.

If, on an application under this section made by either party to a contract or licence falling within subsection (1), the court is satisfied that, in consequence of the patent or patents ceasing to be in force, it would be unjust to require the applicant to continue to comply with all the terms and conditions of the contract or licence, the court may make such order varying those terms or conditions as, having regard to all the circumstances of the case, it thinks just as between the parties.

Without prejudice to any other right of recovery, nothing in subsection (1) is to be taken to entitle any person to recover property let under a hire‑purchase agreement within the meaning of the Hire‑Purchase Act 1969.

This section is without prejudice to any rule of law relating to the frustration of contracts and any right of determining a contract or licence exercisable apart from this section.