Still, the legislature did indeed seek to compensate the patent owner for the lost period, for which he received an extension overseas, but not at any price. "The purpose of compensation is not the be-all and end-all. On the other hand, there is the interest in promoting competition in the Israeli market, which requires the limitation of the period of protection given to patent holders" (Civil Appeal Authority 2070/19 UCB Pharma GmbH v. Registrar of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, para. 15 of the judgment of the Honorable Judge, as he was then called, Sohlberg (published in the databases; 2019) (hereinafter: the UCB case)).
The Honorable Justice Sohlberg further noted, against this background, in the UCB case:
In general, it is appropriate to look overseas, and to set a period of protection for a particular patent that corresponds to that given to it in the countries of reference. However , this does not mean that patents in Israel will be given the maximum protection given in the countries of reference. The main guiding logic in all matters relating to the compatibility between the markets is to promote competition in the Israeli market, taking into account the period of the patent in other markets as a reference point; not as a binding criterion" (ibid., at paragraph 18 of the judgment [emphasis added]).
- In the face of these, the legislature has come to promote another purpose, which is certainty. The parties in the pharmaceutical market must know where they stand. There is, of course, a tension between the keys to the pharmaceutical invention and the generic drug companies. Where the protection given to the primaries ends, they can enter the final picture. Still, the entry of a drug into the market is not a trivial matter. It must be prepared for it in advance, and hence it is important to know the validity of the protection, and this is done in advance.
The need to give an early decision can be found in the explanatory notes to the bill, where it is stated that "an application for an extension order will be examined close to the date of its filing, and if it was filed before the basic patent was granted, with its grant, in order to advance the decision to grant the order, in a manner that will increase certainty regarding the total duration of protection of the patented product or equipment" (Proposed Patent Law (Amendment No. 13) (Extension of the Protection Period), 5772-2012, H.H. 792,794).