A niche blog dedicated to the issues that arise when supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) extend patents beyond their normal life -- and to the respective positions of patent owners, investors, competitors and consumers. The blog also addresses wider issues that may be of interest or use to those involved in the extension of patent rights. You can email The SPC Blog here

Thursday 9 June 2011

Monaco, France and SPCs


A friend of the SPC Blog has posed the following question for our readers, based upon the fact that Monaco does not appear to have made any provision for SPCs in its law.
Does a French SPC have any effect in Monaco? More specifically, can a French SPC produce a direct or indirect effect in Monaco?
A direct effect may simply result from the French SPC having a legal effect in Monaco, while an indirect effect could be that the existence of a French SPC effectively renders the lack of an SPC in Monaco irrelevant by governing the sales and price of the product in Monaco.

Our friend suspects that there is no direct effect of a French SPC in Monaco, but they are less sure about whether or not there is an indirect effect.

As always, any comments on this tricky issue will be gratefully received.

4 comments:

athurgood said...

I rang the Monaco IP office and was told that there is no legislation in place for SCPs in Monaco, nor is there any extension of protection via France.

Anonymous said...

Interesting I wonder about that bit of Alps terrain called Ile de France, too. Is Andorra covered under a France granted and in force SPC? Furthermore, what about la Reunion or French Guine? How much enforceable coverage does a France SPC have?

Anonymous said...

Don't know about Andorra, but the French overseas territories designated DOM/TOM are generally covered by standard French national law unless otherwise specified - in the present case, there is no exception. See for example :

http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCode.do?idArticle=LEGIARTI000023264326&idSectionTA=LEGISCTA000006161700&cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006069414&dateTexte=20120504

From a quick glance, I see nothing in there that mentions SPCs as falling under some form of exception.

Anonymous said...

are SPCs still not applicable in Monacco?