Supplementary Protection Certificates - Key CJEU Case Law and Pending Referrals

Introduction

Supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) extend the protection conferred by a patent for an approved medicinal product by up to five years and are available in the UK and EU and EEA countries (as well as some other European counties).

Article 3 of the SPC Regulation (469/2009) sets out the criteria required to obtain an SPC. Despite various national Courts having referred multiple questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) as to how the SPC Regulation is to be interpreted, divergent national decisions and recent further referrals to the CJEU, demonstrate that there remains some uncertainty as to the correct interpretation of Article 3.

This short webinar will provide an update on the recent CJEU case law relating to Article 3 and an overview of the pending referrals.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• What an SPC is and the criteria for obtaining an SPC
• An overview of the key CJEU decisions, and the most recent case updates, in relation to Article 3 of the SPC Regulation, including:
• Royalty Pharma (C-650/17); and
• Santen (C-673/18)
• An overview of the pending recent referrals to the CJEU from the Finnish and Irish Courts
• What is next for the SPC regime?

This webinar was recorded on 14th December 2022