IP Glossary - S

the possibility of patenting a different use of an already known object/product (e.g. use of a chemical composition as a medicine to treat heart diseases whilst the original patent claims its use as an antibiotic). In general, in Europe it is possible to patent such second use, provided the novelty and inventive step requirements are fulfilled, while in India, this is not allowed.

in FP7 Marie Curie actions, means a period spent by a researcher at a beneficiary’s premises (other than the beneficiary which has appointed him/her under the project) or at an associated partner's premises.

in Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, means a period spent by a researcher at a beneficiary’s premises (other than the beneficiary which has recruited the researcher under the project) or a partner organisation’s premises.

a measure through which the competent authorities can confiscate goods that allegedly infringe intellectual property rights.

a legal concept according to which, if any clause of a contract is held unenforceable, such clause cannot affect the validity of the rest of the contract.

results (including IPRs) that have been created in parallel to the project, but are not part of the project or project-related.

a fraudulent practice in which resellers of domain names contact companies, falsely claiming that another client has requested registration of a domain name identical to the company’s trademark or name, with the aim of persuading the company to register the domain through their services and, in some cases, to gain access to the company’s credit card information.

SMEs are companies with less than 250 employees and with either a turnover of less than or equal to EUR 50 million, or a balance sheet total of less than or equal to EUR 43 million.

The Association of South East Asian Nations: South-East Asia was founded in 1967 with the signing of the South-East Asia Declaration (or Bangkok Declaration) by the founding members Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Since then, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia have joined to constitute the current ten Member States of South-East Asia.

means, in the context of FP7, the beneficiaries of ”research for specific groups” identified in the specific programme and/or work programme.

a new, separate and independent company created from an existing company or organisation. The creation of spin-off is also one of the technology transfer mechanisms through which knowledge and/or intellectual property are transferred and commercially exploited.

patents on technologies that are comprised in an industry standard and that would be necessarily infringed by implementing standard specifications.

everything that has been disclosed or made publicly available before in any place of the world. That disclosure can be made by means of an oral or written description, exploitation, sale or commercialisation, or through any other media or information services, that allow a skilled person to carry out the invention.(See Prior art)

is the extension of the duration of a patent right after its expiration date, applicable to some biologically active agents such as medicinal products. SPCs usually last for a maximum of 5 years; furthermore, the total market exclusivity duration of the patent and the SPC cannot together exceed 15 years. SPCs are justified by the long waiting time for regulatory approval of these products, which delays their introduction on the market.

Strategic tool allowing a general overview of a project, a product, a market or an asset by showing its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.