Supplementary Protection Certificates

This detailed book from a leading patent practitioner provides a systematic, dedicated practical analysis of Supplementary Protection Certificates.

In particular it provides close examination of the Medicinal Products SPC Regulation (which came into force 20 years ago and was aimed at extending effective patent term for pharmaceuticals) and the Plant Protection Products SPC Regulation which followed it several years later.

The interpretation of these measures, marrying as they do concepts drawn from the disparate areas of patent and regulatory law, has proved to be a source of enormous controversy, resulting most recently in what has in effect been their judicial rewriting along teleological principles.

Trevor Cook presents a measured and much-needed analysis of these instruments and the case law that has been used to interpret them. The book will be an essential resource for patent practitioners, including patent attorneys, patent lawyers in private practice, and counsel at pharmaceutical companies. It will also appeal to IP scholars as an in-depth treatment of these measures.