Sunday, February 12, 2006

Patent term extension by the Polish Patent Office

The new judgement of the Central Administrative Court (CAC) ordered the Polish Patent Office (PPO) to issue positive decisions on patent term extension in relation to patents which where granted before Poland became a TRIPS member. According to the former Law on Inventions the term of protection lasted 15 years, but this term was changed in 1994 by law conforming the Law on Inventions to the TRIPS agreement to the minimum 20-years protection. The Boots Company PLC, the British patent holder, persuaded the Court to support it's motion to the PPO on patent term extention (sygn. II GPS 1/05)