Patent decision

BL number
O/006/08
Concerning rights in
SPC/GB05/041
Hearing Officer
Mr A C Howard
Decision date
10 January 2008
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
Gilead Sciences, Inc
Provisions discussed
Council Regulation (EEC) No. 1768/92, Article 3
Keywords
Supplementary Protection Certificates
Related Decisions
None

Summary

The product for which an SPC was sought comprised a combination of the active substances tenofovir disoproxil (or a derivative thereof) and emtricitabine. The basic patent disclosed and claimed a range of substances, including tenofovir disoproxil and its derivatives, but included no mention of the component emtricitabine. The only indication in the basic patent that one of the claimed substances might be combined with anything else was a single claim (together with a corresponding reference in the description) to a pharmaceutical composition comprising, inter alia, a compound according to any earlier claim optionally in combination with other (unspecified) therapeutic ingredients. It was decided that, reading the patent through the eyes of the skilled person as of the priority date, the basic patent could not be said to protect the product which is the subject of the application, as required by Article 3(a) of the Regulation, and the application was rejected.

Full decision O/006/08 PDF document55Kb