Royalty Pharma: welcome clarity mixed with unwelcome ambiguity

15-05-2020

Beatriz San Martin

Royalty Pharma: welcome clarity mixed with unwelcome ambiguity

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The CJEU’s decision in Royalty Pharma has provided much-anticipated guidance on supplementary protection certificates but has left a lot of uncertainty. Was this the best the CJEU could come up with? Beatriz San Martin of Arnold & Porter reports.

At the end of April the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its judgment in Case C-650/17 Royalty Pharma Collection Trust. 

The decision relates to yet another preliminary reference to the CJEU on the interpretation of article 3(a) of the Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) Regulation and is the second time the CJEU has been given the opportunity to clarify what the test should be for functional claims. 

While the decision includes some welcome clarity, it is also mixed with several new elements of ambiguity which no doubt will keep attorneys, patent offices and courts scratching their heads for some time to come.


CJEU, Court of Justice of the European Union, SPC, supplementary protection certificates, Royalty Pharma, Beatriz San Martin, Arnold & Porter

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