Summary of the January 2010 SPC Seminar

If you weren't able to make it to the SPC Blog's 2010 seminar, or can't remember all the topics covered, you can now download a summary of the event here. Thanks to John Miles (Potter Clarkson) for reviewing it for accuracy.

The seminar: an afternoon to remember

Here are a couple of photos from Wednesday's seminar that were not so bad that they had to destroyed on sight. Above are Martijn de Lange (Netherlands Patent Office) and Jeffrey S. Boone (Covidien), both smiling despite the length of the queue for coffee during their well-earned break.

This is Judith Caldwell (Keltie, right), who was just in the process of taking possession of a newly innominate bear-mouse. The story behind this moving (still?) picture is as follows: IBC Informa conference organiser Catherine Watson, together with her friends Sarah Haynes and Katie Thorne, had decided to ascend Mont Blanc this August in order to raise funds for three charities: Breast Cancer Campaign, White Ribbon Alliance and Action for Children. To assist them in their fund-raising (their target is £15,000, with a little over £4,000 promised so far), the SPC Blog agreed to auction the cuddly toy depicted above.

The toy in question was provisionally named Monty the Mountain Bear (Monty being an allusion to 'Mont', the French word for a mountain), but after some consideration the trio felt that the toy might be a mouse rather an a bear. Noting the alliterative quality of Monty the Mountain Mouse they decided to rename him there and then.

At the seminar, Judith won a hard-fought auction battle and walked off with the bear, together with the large and handsome John Lewis plastic carrier bag which would enable her to carry it through the streets of Holborn without attracting too much attention. At a second auction, Rob Stephen (Olswang) acquired the renaming rights to the bear -- though he hasn't yet gone public with the creature's new identity.

If you'd like to know more about this effort, and/or wish to make a donation, you can do so via their website 3birds1mountain.com (GiftAid available for UK taxpayers).

SPC Seminar 2010 - Short Overview

Considering that snow blanketed London yesterday, there was quite a turnout for the SPC Blog's 2nd Seminar on SPC Law and Practice in 2010. We had a few excellent presentations and a lively debate on hot topics. Unfortunately, one of our speakers, Javier Huarte (Grau & Angulo) was not able to join us due to snow-related travel complications.

Here's a short summary for readers who were not able to make it:


Jeffrey Boone (Covidien) provided an overview of patent term extensions in the United States under the Hatch-Waxman Act, including information on the application process, extension period allowed, which products are covered as well as some recent case law.


Martijn de Lange (Netherlands Patent Office) touched on the recent ECJ decision C-482/07 (AHP) and its implications, problems related to paediatric term extensions based on national marketing authorisations, zero/negative term SPCs and that the infringement test was rejected by the Dutch Court of Appeal.


On the hot topics front, issues around SPC infringement stimulated a heated debate. The Blog will post other questions/issues raised during the seminar along with some comments in the next couple of weeks.

SPC Seminar: breaking news

Since the United Kingdom has just been deluged with more snow, a number of registrants for this afternoon's seminar have phoned in to say they're stuck at home or in transit and can't attend.

If you're in the London area and would like to attend -- whether you're on the waiting list or not -- just email Verity Pike here and let her know.

The SPC Blog Seminar: Martijn de Lange's presentation

For the benefit both of (i) those people who are attending the SPC Blog seminar and want to think about some of the issues ahead of time and (ii) those people who cannot attend or applied too late but want to know more about the subjects of discussion, Martijn de Lange (Netherlands Patent Office) has agreed to let this blog post his presentation (here). Thanks, Martijn, for your thoughtfulness.

Ask the IPO ... at the SPC Seminar 2010

The SPC Blog is pleased to announce that Lawrence Cullen, Deputy Director of the UK Intellectual Property Office, will be joining the panel for the Hot Topics and Questions discussion at the SPC Law and Practice 2010 Seminar.

The SPC Blog's 2010 seminar: you're all invited!

The SPC Blog is delighted to announce SPC Law and Practice 2010, the weblog's second annual seminar. Once again we are fortunate that Olswang LLP has agreed to host the event, which is free, at its London office.

The seminar takes place on Wednesday 13 January 2010. It will run from 1.30pm, when registration commences, till the last drop of wine is sipped and the last peanut ceremonially crunched at 6pm. Last year's seminar was very well attended and, judging by the growth of interest in SPCs, paediatric extensions and patent term prolongation in general over the past year, we expect a capacity crowd of 90 participants or thereabouts.

Highlights of the afternoon include presentations on the current state of SPCs in Spain (Javier Huarte, Grau and Angelo) and the Netherlands (Martijn de Lange, Netherlands Patent Office) as well as patent term extension in the USA (Jeffrey Boone, Covidien). SPC Blog team member Rob Stephen (Olswang) takes the chair. There will also be a celebrity line-up for the Hot Topics and Questions session, which will be full of surprises.

For further details click the invitation here. To tell the SPC Blog that you'll be coming, email Verity here

Reverse payments: (how) do they affect SPCs?

While discussing possible subjects for discussion at The SPC Blog's second annual seminar this coming January, one of the topics that was raised was that of "reverse payments". The idea of a patent owner "buying off" a generic competitor in order to ensure a longer period of exclusivity and avoiding a legal challenge is one that has become well enshrined in US patent practice -- and although concern has been expressed by antitrust regulators, consumer groups and others, the Supreme Court has yet to agree to hear an appeal on this issue.

Have reverse payments become part of European practice and, if so, to what extent? There is certainly some support for the proposition that they are illegal in their basic form. But would they especially nuanced where the right which the proprietor seeks to protect lies in the realm of supplementary protection? I've not been able to find a literature on this subject, but would like to consider it as a seminar topic if there's enough substance to it.

Please let me know your thoughts, either by posting them below so that everyone can see them, or by emailing them here. If there are other topics that appeal to you, please let me know about those too.

Mark your diaries for next seminar

The date for next year's SPC Blog Seminar is provisionally fixed for the afternoon of  Wednesday 13 January 2010. This may sound like a long time ahead, but time passes rapidly and diaries soon fill up with commitments that stretch into the distant future.

The blog team, which hopes to run the seminar in much the same way as it did this year, invites your suggestions as to (i) topics on which you would particularly welcome presentations and (ii) speakers whom you'd like to hear or whom you can personally recommend. We may not be able to accommodate every preference, but we have a greater chance of fulfilling your requirements if we know what you want.

Please email your suggestions to The SPC Blog here