‘Unitary SPC’ Proves Popular With EU Stakeholders

A consultation has found that most stakeholders support the idea of a unitary supplementary protection certificate to complement the future unitary patent system in the EU, and that a re-examination of the way the “Bolar” research exemption works would be worthwhile. Interestingly, the consultation revealed that while some innovator company respondents saw the SPC as the main factor in making investment decisions in the EU, most rated it only "moderately" important.

Patent law — An EU consultation has found broad stakeholder support for unitary patent extensions.

The idea of creating a unitary supplementary protection certificate (SPC) that would extend the protection conferred by the future unitary patents in the EU has gone down very well with stakeholders, at least judging by responses to a public consultation run by the European Commission between October 2017 and January 2018.

“A very large majority of the respondents across all categories favour the creation of a unitary SPC, which would extend...