Article 5
1. The contractors shall be required to develop, exploit or commercialize the knowledge which they own, or to have it developed, exploited or commercialized within a contractually agreed period, in accordance with the Community's interests and taking account of: - the objective of strengthening the international competitiveness of Community industry, - economic and social cohesion in the Community, - the needs of other Community policies in support of which the RTD activities are carried out, and - the existence of scientific and technical cooperation agreements between the Community and third countries, or international organizations. The Commission may, with the consent of the contractors concerned, take steps to encourage the use or exploitation of this knowledge in accordance with the interests of the Community. 2. All contractors taking part in the same project shall be entitled to exploit or commercialize knowledge resulting from that project and to have granted to them any licences and user rights regarding such knowledge which are necessary for the purposes of exploitation or commercialization. Such licences and user rights shall not confer the right to grant sub-licences except with the formal consent of the owner of the knowledge, and no fee shall be payable for them, unless the shared-cost contracts stipulate other appropriate terms and exploitation arrangements based on the nature of the project and on the specific requirements of products generated by it, the commercial or non-commercial role of each contractor and its contribution to the project. 3. Subject to Article 16, each shared-cost contract shall specify the circumstances under which other contractors taking part in the same programme may have granted to them user rights and licences covering the knowledge resulting from that contract which are necessary for the exploitation or commercialization of the knowledge obtained under their project in the same programme on preferential conditions. The same conditions shall apply to contractors who are taking part in other programmes in associated fields or with related aims and are established in the Community and engaged in research and development activities there, provided that their shared-cost contracts place the contractors under the obligation to provide equivalent access to their own knowledge on favourable conditions. 4. Any person established in the Community who has a legitimate interest in obtaining rights or licences to exploit or commercialize the knowledge shall be entitled to request that such rights or licences be granted to him or her on commercial conditions unless the owner of the knowledge or his or her licensees have taken adequate steps to exploit or commercialize the knowledge, or to have it exploited or commercialized, within the agreed period. Subject to Article 16, there shall be no refusal to grant the licences or user rights mentioned in paragraph 3 and in this paragraph other than for reasons stipulated in the shared-cost contracts, namely the major business interests of the contractors or the interests of the Community, provided that such business interests do not improperly restrict the exploitation and commercialization of the knowledge in the Community. The granting of such licences and user rights may namely be refused when they relate to products, or the manufacture thereof, or to services, which are or are about to become commercially available.