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Extendingthetermofyour
Canadianpatentisnowpossible
MartinGauthier
ROBIC,LLP
TechnicalAdvisorandLawyer
OnSeptember21,severalprovisionsoftheCanada-EUComprehensiveEconomicand
TradeAgreementImplementationActcameintoeffectinCanada.Amongtheseprovisions
aresomethatintroduceamendmentstothePatentActincludingtheadditionofasystem
ofCertificatesofSupplementaryProtection(“CSP”).
ThegrantingofaCSPisintendedinparttocompensateforthetimespentinresearch
andobtainingamarketingauthorizationforadrugcontaininganewmedicinalingredient
orcombinationofmedicinalingredients.Thedurationoftheseproceedingsmayeffectively
jeopardizetheactualenjoymentofthestatutoryprotectioninherenttoaCanadianpatent
onthatingredientorcombinationofingredients.
Asaresult,thenewCanadianCSPregimeprovidesanextensiontothe20-yearstatutory
patenttermforamaximumoftwoyears,startingfromtheexpirydateofaneligible
pharmaceuticalpatent.
TheeligibilityofapharmaceuticalpatentfortheCSPregimedependsonthesatisfaction
ofseveralrequirements.Oneoftheserequirementsisthatthepatentmustcontainatleast
oneclaimpertainingtoanovelmedicinalingredientorcombinationofmedicinal
ingredients,toitsuse,ortoaspecificprocessbywhichitcanbeobtained.Underthenew
provisions,”new”meansthatnoothermarketingauthorizationhasbeengrantedforthe
sameingredientorcombinationofingredients.
GiventhatonlyoneCSPcanbegrantedpermedicinalingredientwhileanumberof
patentsmayissuetoprotectvariousaspectofthesamemedicinalingredient,the
introductionofthisnewregimewillhaveastrategicimpactonpatentdrafting.
