Each month we answer 3-5 questions our clients often have on a specific topic and share it with you.
Q1: When is Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) issued?
ssuance of SPC is available – this is due to the fact that patent protection of such inventions is not in itself enough for the owner to be able to commercialize them, as a separate & independent process for a permit to distribute them in the marketplace is necessary.
This aims to give owners of such inventions up to 5 extra years of protections, should they chose to apply for SPC.
Q2: What are the conditions that need to be met?
As stated above, the invention covered by the patent needs to be medication for humans or animals or plant protection/chemical – goods that need separate permits to be put into a marketplace.
Additionally, request for SPC has to be filed with the local IPO within 6 months since such permit has been obtained or up to 6 months from the date of the registration of the patent.
The request is filed by the owner of the patent, not by the licensee or the manufacturer.
Q3: What are the steps?
If all of the above is strictly followed – filing by the responsible person/entity in the foreseen term and there is a right to SPC protection, the IPO will publish it, issue a Certificate and note it in the official Registry.
The SPC protection will last up to 5 years (the exact formula is: time from the filing of the patent application to first permit, minus 5 years; but no longer than 5 years) – and this time starts when the 20 years of the primary patent are finished.
Annuities need to be paid for each year, as for the all other patents.
Note: SPC is not available in Montenegro & Kosovo (ME &KS) – their IP Laws have the necessary articles describing the supplementary certificate, but intend to start using them only once they have joined the EU.