On May 24, 2016, the Argentinean Court of Appeals set a very important precedent in procedural matters admitting the Industrial Chamber of Argentine Pharmaceutical Laboratories (CILFA) as a voluntary third party in a patent rejection case. This Chamber gathers many national pharmaceutical laboratories and represents their rights.
This is one of a very few cases that Argentinean Court of Appeals acknowledged a third party in a patent case. Particularly, in the case Schering Corporation against the National Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI), judges declared the admissibility of CILFA as a third party in a rejection trial, without none of the parties had required CILFA intervention.
CILFA argued that the decision to be rendered in this case is of great interest to its members, evidencing that the granting of the patent requested by Schering could restrict the competition in the pharmaceutical market.
The admission of CILFA as a voluntary third party – on terms of the Argentine Procedural Code, art. 92, inc. 1) – in the mentioned case will allow entities, representing collective interests of some society sector in the local economy and/or society, to spontaneously appear in judicial cases where the interests of their members are involved.
Despite the arguments used by Schering and INPI on the judicial dossier in order to obtain the rejection of a third party intervention, judges Maria Susana Najurieta and Ricardo Guarininoni, members of the Chamber of the Court of Appeals, decided to admit the intervention of CILFA in the case.
Source: Case: "Schering Corporation against Instituto Nacional de la Propiedad Industrial over rejection of a patent, Case number 3514/2014, CCCF, Sala I"
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