On 12 December 2013, the Court of Justice of the European Union again handed down some important decisions in an attempt to clarify the interpretation of Regulation 469/2009 (‘the SPC Regulation’). These three decisions are expected to impact supplementary protection certificate (‘SPC’) strategies.

In this comment Gertjan Kuipers, Tjibbe Douma and Margot Kokke discuss the background of SPCs and the SPC Regulation and the uncertainty that led to the referrals which resulted in the 12 December 2013 decisions. They then discuss the main teachings of the decisions and the implications they may have. In addition to its decisions of 12 December 2013, the court presented some interesting considerations concerning, for example, the term of SPCs. The court also seems to introduce a new criterion for the granting of SPCs: if the granting of an SPC were to be contrary to the objective of the SPC Regulation, the SPC could be refused. These additional considerations are addressed in the discussion together with their practical implications.

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Source: Bio-science Law Review, case comments: vol. 13 issue 5, published by Lawtext Publishing Limited.