For the second time in its 55 year history, the German Federal Patent Court has granted a compulsory license. This allows the company to continue distributing a drug whose active component had been patented. In a third-party article for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Dr. Franz-Josef Zimmer, patent attorney with Grünecker, and Dr. Bernd Allekotte, litigator with Grünecker, elaborate on the dimensions of this decision. The pharma industry, in particular, cannot be pleased, since the remuneration for its significant investment in research and development is limited on the basis of a single expert opinion.