Europe's highest court has issued a landmark ruling on the law governing supplementary protection certificates in the EU.
Europe’s highest court has issued a landmark ruling on the law governing supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) in the EU.
SPCs extend the period of monopoly for patentees who experience delays in marketing their patented products owing to the need to obtain regulatory approval. They apply only to patents covering human or veterinary medicines, or plant protection products.
National patent offices have previously granted SPCs only to the first product containing a particular active ingredient that regulators have approved. The term of the combined patent and SPC protection has been capped at 15 years (15 years 6 months in some cases).
The rest of this article is locked for subscribers only. Please login to continue reading.
If you don't have a login, you will need to purchase a subscription to gain access to this article, including all our online content. Please use this link and follow the steps.
For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription to us that we can add you to for FREE, please email Atif Choudhury at achoudhury@worldipreview.com
CJEU, SPCs, EU, Neurim, Circadin
