A niche blog dedicated to the issues that arise when supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) extend patents beyond their normal life -- and to the respective positions of patent owners, investors, competitors and consumers. The blog also addresses wider issues that may be of interest or use to those involved in the extension of patent rights. You can email The SPC Blog here

Wednesday 28 October 2009

IPO issues new SPC guide

The Intellectual Property Office in the United Kingdom has recently prepared, and now issued, a handsome new guide to SPCs, Supplementary Protection Certificates: Guide for Applicants, though for some souls who are unfamiliar with the subject a more welcome title might have been A Guide for the Perplexed, given the level of detail and conceptual complexity which accompanies almost every step of this topic in practice. Weighing in at 34 pages and attractively illustrated, this booklet, which is current to September 2009, aims
"to give a short introduction to the procedures for applying for a Supplementary Protection Certificate or an extension to a certificate in the United Kingdom. It is intended to serve as a guide only and is not an authoritative statement of the law on Supplementary Protection Certificates. It is therefore advisable to seek independent professional advice about any matters covered by this booklet and not to rely on the booklet alone".
The SPC Blog agrees that professional advice is a good idea; it would never do for a private individual who holds a pharmaceutical patent to go wandering off into the arcane area of patent term extension without at least having a quiet word or two with his friendy local lawyer ...

Seriously, this is a useful, well-structured, well-referenced guide which, when read by a client before meeting a lawyer, can save time, focus minds and dispel misapprehensions. The IPO should be congratulated for putting it together.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The provided link does not work. This one does:http://www.ipo.gov.uk/spctext.pdf

Anonymous said...

The provided link works very fine. Anyway thanks for the alternate link.