European SPCs Unravelled

While supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) are governed by the same substantive rules in all Member States of the European Union and the European Economic Area (EEA), they are national intellectual property rights. The formal requirements and procedural practices of the national patent offices granting SPCs still differ significantly, and these divergences can have a substantial impact on the prosecution of SPCs across Europe. This one-of-a-kind handbook provides an in-depth review of SPC law in Europe, covering all substantive and procedural aspects of prosecution, enforcement and invalidation, as well as SPC-related aspects of unfair competition law.

Following an overarching European chapter, which addresses general considerations and the relevant European Union law, including the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice (CJEU) and the EFTA Court, this book contains detailed national chapters for all European states that provide SPCs − i.e., the twenty-seven EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden), the EEA/EFTA states Norway and Iceland, as well as the United Kingdom, Switzerland/Liechtenstein, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, and North Macedonia. The contributors to this book, all seasoned experts in the field of SPCs in their respective jurisdictions, provide clear and hands-on guidance on the most pertinent SPC-related topics of practical and strategic relevance.

The considerably expanded second edition of this handbook offers a comprehensive analysis of European SPC law and practice, covering all European states with SPC systems in detailed national chapters. As such, this book provides invaluable assistance to IP practitioners in devising successful pan-European SPC filing and litigation strategies. Its practice-oriented approach, in combination with a country-by-country format where all chapters follow the same structure, makes it easy to compare the national practices and the respective national case law of the different European countries.

‘The present work fills a gap and provides, for the first time, an overview of the SPC practice in the EU Member States, which despite the intended harmonization by the respective EU legislation is still decidedly inconsistent in some areas. Altogether, this successful work, with its streamlined structure and clear language that is immediately comprehensible even to non-native speakers, functions not “only” as a source of information for European attorneys, authorities and courts. It also conveys – perhaps not at all intended by the authors – the unique diversity of this European legal regime, which for many exerts a special fascination. The present Practitioner’s Guide can be recommended without reservation and should not be missing in any specialist library.’

– Jürgen Schell, Judge at the German Federal Patent Court, on the first edition of this book.