A Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) is a form
of intellectual property that can extend the protection of patented
active ingredients present in pharmaceutical or plant protection
products by up to five years.
What are SPCs for?
SPCs were introduced to compensate patent holders for the
effective loss in patent term through delays in receiving marketing
authorisation.
The maximum term of a patent is generally 20 years. After
expiry, the content of a patent falls into the public domain and
will normally be available for use by anyone. However, some
products in the fields of animal (including human) medicine and
plant protection require regulatory approval before being able to
be sold. Such approval almost always involves substantial and
expensive trials and testing, and may take many years to obtain.
This can significantly reduce the period available to the patentee
to recoup his expenditure or gain additional benefit from his
research.
