The EU is putting out to tender a project to
review the fundamentals of the SPC regime. See here for details. The deadline for reply is the 4th February. This could get quite interesting.
The EU communication states that:
"The study shall evaluate whether a new European SPC title, in its current scope, or broadened with improved provisions, is required to meet the requirements of current and expected innovative market developments in the EU.
With this primary purpose, the study shall evaluate the current SPC framework in terms of its legal efficiency in meeting its stated objectives given the development of directly affected and related product markets. The study shall also evaluate some economic aspects of the current SPC framework.
It shall also suggest whether the existing SPC rules need to be recalibrated given identified limitations.
The results could serve as a basis for an impact assessment for a future proposal by the Commission to create a European SPC title, and complement the recalibration of the existing EU SPC rules".
Yeah basically this is for the unitary patent (a long way away ) and not really for reform of the current system which will take a back seat to any more grandiose plans. Getting ahead of themselves the Commission, as always.
ReplyDeleteThe link appears to go to a blank page now. I guess that is because the deadline for submitting tenders has expired. However, does anyone know if the tender documents (which contain some useful comments and information) can be accessed via any kind of archive of the Commission's website?
ReplyDeleteTender document can be found here:
ReplyDeletehttps://infoeuropa.eurocid.pt/files/database/000069001-000070000/000069543_2.pdf
As you can read it really goes much further than just creating a unitary SPC. The entire system is being audited.