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

Tuesday 25 August 2015

Another article, another case note: SPCs loom large in latest BioSLR

The just-published issue 5 of volume 14 of Lawtext Publishing's Bio-science Law Review has two items that should be interest to the SPC enthusiast. It opens with an article, "Supplementary Protection Certificates for biologicals -- some guidance from Pharmaq v Intervet" by the Potter Clarkson LLP pair of John Miles and Michael Pears. According the abstract:
The Pharmaq v Intervet case [the EFTA Court ruling, here, discussed on this weblog here] considers, in the context of a salmon virus vaccine, the important issues of what types of marketing authorisations count for the purposes of determining whether a supplementary protection certificate (SPC) is available and what its duration is, and whether an SPC based on a particular authorised biological product can validly extend protection to an authorised variant of that product. Possible implications with respect to SPCs for human biological medicines are also discussed.
This is followed by a case analysis by Katie Hutchinson and Laura Reynolds (Bristows), "CJEU rules again on combination SPCs - Actavis v Boehringer". Explains the journal:
This comment considers the latest judgment from the CJEU on combination SPCs. It summarises earlier cases from the court in order to build up a picture of the position the CJEU is now taking.
Further details of the journal can be accessed here.

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