La estructura de la protección jurídica de los certificados complementarios de protección para medicamentos

Abstract

The supplementary protection certificate for medicines for human and veterinary use («SPC») is an industrial property title under EU law aimed at encouraging investments and efforts in R&D&I required to develop and put on the market new medicines by means of prolonging the duration of legal protection on the active ingredients of medicines for which the necessary administrative marketing authorization has been obtained («MA») beyond the duration of the patents that initially protect them. In the lines that follow, I will address the structure of this sui generis legal protection system. Specifically, I will discuss the subject-matter for which the SPC is granted (the «protected product»), the scope of the protection conferred by the SPC over the protected product, the substantive content or ius prohibendi that embodies its protection, including its limitations and exceptions, the duration of this IP right and, finally, its expiry and that of the CCP itself.