Owing to my colleague and excellent friend Lionel Vial, it is SPC month on Patent my French!
After tackling the recent Halozyme judgment a couple of weeks ago, Lionel now goes one-on-one with Ono.
As promised last week, we are back to discuss the second of the third recent supplementary protection certificate (SPC) appeal decisions rendered on refusals of the French patent office (INPI).
This week’s decision, which was rendered by the Paris Cour d’appel on January 19, 2021, discusses not one but two articles (aren’t we lucky) of Regulation (EC) No 469/2009 (the “SPC regulation”): 3(a) and 3(c).
SPC application FR15C0088 was filed on December 15, 2015 by Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd and Professor H., whom we are told in the decision is a Nobel prize winner, on the basis of (i) marketing authorization EU/1/15/1014 in the name of Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma EEIG and of (ii) European patent EP 1537878 (which will give you the full name of Professor H. if you are curious or if you don’t know the names of all Nobel prize winners by heart). EP 1537878 was filed on July 2, 2003 and granted on September 22, 2010. The product forming the subject-matter of the SPC is nivolumab (Opdivo®), a human monoclonal antibody which blocks the PD-1 receptor and is indicated in the treatment of certain cancers.
Since the decision begins with article 3(c) of the SPC regulation, let’s do the same.
The SPC application was rejected on March 2, 2018 pursuant to article 3(c) of the SPC regulation because a SPC had already been granted to Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd for nivolumab.
The SPC in question is FR15C0087, also filed on December 15, 2015, granted on January 6, 2017, and held by Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd and E. R. SQUIBB & SONS, L.L.C on the basis of European patent EP 2161336.
The INPI based its decision in particular on the judgment of the CJEU of September 3, 2009 in case C‑482/07 (AHP Manufacturing), which notably provides that “it should be pointed out that the first sentence of Article 3(2) [of Regulation (EC) No 1610/96, i.e. the phytosanitary SPC regulation] precludes the grant, to the holder of more than one patent for the same product, of more than one SPC for that product. However, the second sentence of Article 3(2) allows such a grant to two or more holders of different patents for the same product. It is thus apparent that the special condition for the grant of two or more SPCs for the same product is that the relevant applications emanate from different holders of basic patents” (see paragraph 25 of the judgement).
Faithful readers will immediately be reminded of a previous decision discussed here on this blog, in which the Cour d’appel sustained the decision of the INPI to reject a SPC applied by Medivir AB for simeprevir pursuant to article 3(c) in view of a previous SPC for the same product held by Medivir AB and Janssen Sciences Ireland UC.
The INPI therefore appears to be consistent in considering that the different holders of a same SPC or SPC application should not be considered as a single entity but individually.
Is it also the case of the Cour d’appel?
In the appeal proceedings, Ono and Professor H. notably argued that the case law of the General Court of the European Union (EU) allows the EU judge who cannot find elements in the EU law which would allow her/him to specify the content and scope of an EU provision by an autonomous interpretation to rely on national law. In the present case, pursuant to French civil law ruling co-ownership, the “holder” within the meaning of the SPC and phytosanitary SPC regulations would thus refer to all the persons holding property rights on a patent, so that the two basic patents (and the corresponding SPCs) would be held by different holders.
The Cour d’appel ruled as follows:
In this regard, the reference made by the appellants to the rules of civil law relating to co-ownership to argue that the holders of the EP 336 and EP 878 patents are not the same – the co-ownership consisting of the ONO and SQUIBB & SONS companies, holders of the EP 336 patent, being in this regard different from the co-ownership consisting of the ONO company and Pr. H., holders of the EP 878 patent – so that the conditions of Article 3(2) (second sentence) of regulation (EC) 1610/96 are fulfilled, is inoperative. The rules governing patent co-ownership are specifically defined by articles L. 613-29 to L. 613-32 of the Code de la propriété intellectuelle. Article L. 613-30 expressly provides that the ordinary law governing co-ownership resulting from the civil code does not apply to co-ownership of a patent application or a patent. Article L. 613-29 provides that “Each of the co-owners may use the invention for its own benefit, provided the other co-owners are indemnified (…)”. It follows therefrom that ONO, which is a co-owner of both the EP 336 and EP 878 patents and which may use them alone under the conditions set forth in article L. 613-29 of the Code de la propriété intellectuelle, is a “holder” of these patents within the meaning of article 3(2) of previously cited regulation No. 1610/96.
The decision of the INPI was therefore sustained.
Here, we are of the opinion that the reasoning of the Cour d’appel might miss a point. Indeed, article L. 613-32 of the Code de la propriété intellectuelle provides that articles L. 613-29 to L. 613-31 apply in the absence of contractual provisions stating otherwise and that co-owners may decide otherwise at any time through a co-ownership agreement.
As such, before reaching its conclusion, the Cour d’appel should have checked whether co-ownership agreements had been set up between Ono & Squibb on the one hand, and between Ono & Professor H. on the other hand, and if both these agreements allowed Ono to use the patents for its own benefit, without requiring any authorization from the other parties.
Perhaps this missing piece in the reasoning of the Cour d’appel will be addressed by the Cour de cassation (the French Supreme court) in the future.
Notwithstanding, this may be irrelevant for the outcome of this case, as the rejection was also based on article 3(a) of the SPC regulation.
Claim 3 of the basic patent was relied on for the purpose of the SPC application:
Anti-PD-1 antibody which inhibits the immunosuppressive signal of PD-1 for the use in cancer treatment.
The INPI considered that while claim 3 did “implicitly” cover nivolumab, it could not be interpreted in the light of the description of the basic patent as relating “necessarily” and “specifically” to this active ingredient within the meaning of the judgement of the CJEU in case C‑493/12 (Eli Lilly), as the description of the patent did not contain any indication, such as a concrete embodiment or any other teaching allowing to specifically individualise nivolumab.
The appellants argued that nivolumab necessarily relates to the invention covered by the patent, because it implements the technical contribution brought by the basic patent. The appellants further argued that nivoluab was specifically identifiable by the person skilled in the art because patent EP 878 teaches all the necessary elements to identify the antibodies forming the subject-matter of claim 1, and describes in detail the steps for producing an anti-PD-1 antibody and how to screen these antibodies to identify those which inhibit the immunosuppressive signal of PD-1; as such, the person skilled in the art could obtain, at the filing date of the EP 878 patent, through routine operations, all the antibodies fulfilling the function recited by the EP 878 patent, including nivolumab.
The Cour d’appel essentially relied on the judgement handed by the CJEU on April 30, 2020 in case C‑650/17 (Royalty Pharma) to reach its decision.
The Royalty Pharma judgement provides:
1. Article 3(a) of Regulation (EC) No 469/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 concerning the supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products must be interpreted as meaning that a product is protected by a basic patent in force, within the meaning of that provision, if it corresponds to a general functional definition used by one of the claims of the basic patent and necessarily comes within the scope of the invention covered by that patent, but is not otherwise indicated in individualised form as a specific embodiment of the method of that patent, provided that it is specifically identifiable, in the light of all the information disclosed by that patent, by a person skilled in the art, based on that person’s general knowledge in the relevant field at the filing date or priority date of the basic patent and on the prior art at that date.
2. Article 3(a) of Regulation No 469/2009 must be interpreted as meaning that a product is not protected by a basic patent in force, within the meaning of that provision, if, although it is covered by the functional definition given in the claims of that patent, it was developed after the filing date of the application for the basic patent, following an independent inventive step (emphasis added by the Cour d’appel).
The Cour d’appel agreed with the appellants that nivolumab is implicitly and necessarily within the scope of the invention covered by the basic patent. However, it came to a different conclusion as to whether nivolumab is specifically identifiable.
The Cour d’appel considered that the preparation of monoclonal antibodies requires more than routine operations. The fact that 3 years were necessary for Ono to file the EP 336 patent which specifically relates to nivolumab was a sound indication that an independent inventive step was needed from the EP 878 patent to arrive at nivolumab.
The decision of the INPI based on article 3(a) of the SPC regulation was therefore also sustained.
For our part, we are not certain that the article 3(a)-test should be applied in the same manner to functionally-defined antibodies on the one hand and small molecules on the other hand.
Indeed, given a protein target, it is generally considered that the level of difficulty for identifying small molecule inhibitors is higher than for antibody inhibitors. As such, this difference should also be reflected in the standard to apply for determining if a product is specifically identifiable from a patent specification. In this regard, it should be noted that the Royalty Pharma judgement arose from a small molecule case (sitagliptin). In contrast, the Eli Lilly judgement arose from a monoclonal antibody case (tabalumab). Accordingly, perhaps monoclonal antibody SPCs should be assessed on the basis of the Eli Lilly judgement, without applying the “independent inventive step” test added by the Royalty Pharma judgment, which should be reserved to small molecules, at least until the CJEU clearly states that this latter test is of universal application for functionally-defined products. In this regard, it should be noted that the UK intellectual property office did grant a SPC for nivolumab based on the EP 878 patent on June 25, 2018 (before the Royalty Pharma judgement was handed).
We will be back soon with the last of the three SPC appeal decisions rendered on refusals of the INPI, with yet another article 3(a)/Royalty Pharma case.
Thank you Lionel. Any decent SPC post is supposed to end with the expression of a wish for – or fear of – a future CJEU referral, and I am quite happy that this one is no exception.
CASE REFERENCE: Cour d’appel de Paris, pôle 5 chambre 1, January 19, 2021, Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. et al. v. Directeur général de l’Institut national de la propriété industrielle, RG No. 18/10522.
The post Court says no to Ono appeared first on Patent my French!.
