The European Commission has announced a proposal for a regulation on supplementary protection certificates ("SPCs") to create a unitary SPC right across participating states and/or a single "unified" procedure for granting national SPCs. Laura Orlando, an IP partner in our Milan office, and EMEA co-lead partner for the Life Sciences sector comments. Read more

With the Unified Patent Court and unitary patent system now likely to commence towards the second half of 2022, the European Patent Office has issued transitional measures aimed at ensuring that patents coming to grant close to the start of the new system are able to get unitary protection (ie unitary patent status) from the "day 1", including via a delayed grant mechanism. Read more

It has been announced today that the German Constitutional Court has rejected the latest challenges to ratification of the UPC Agreement ("UPCA"). The full decision (in German) can be found here. The decision paves the way for ratification to take place and may lead to the UPC coming into force as early as Autumn 2022. Read more

In September 2020 we reported that the UK Intellectual Property Office (‘UKIPO’) had launched a call for views on the relationship between artificial intelligence (‘AI’) and intellectual property rights. The outcome of that consultation has now been published. We summarise the key takeaways below. Key findings The majority of respondents agreed that: the law in … Read more

After the German Parliament's upper house, the Bundesrat, passed the legislation to allow Germany to ratify the UPC Agreement (UPCA), there have been two challenges filed before the German Constitutional Court.  As a result, according to information from the Federal President’s office, he has been asked to delay his signature, which is required in order for the legislation to enter into force. This time the challenges include interim injunction applications, but we expect that if these are rejected, Germany will deposit its ratification of the Protocol on Provisional Application of the UPCA and not await the full decision. Read more

On 23 January 2020, AG Giovanni Pitruzzella provided his Opinion on the interpretation of Article 3(d) of Regulation (EC) No 469/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 concerning the supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products ("SPC Regulation"). In doing so, AG Pitruzzella makes two proposals to the CJEU. His favoured proposal would significantly curtail the availability of SPCs for second medical uses of known and previously authorised compounds, as it strictly interprets the meaning of "product" under Article 1(b) and precludes an interpretation of Neurim according to which a marketing authorisation (“MA”) for a “different and new application of an old active ingredient” could be considered as the first MA of a previously authorised active ingredient. His alternative proposal permit SPCs in a wider set of circumstances by interpreting Neurim as allowing an SPC to be granted if the new MA “covers a new therapeutic indication of said active ingredient or relates to a use of it in which this active ingredient exerts a new pharmacological, immunological or metabolic action of its own”. Read more