Any person believing that proceedings for supplementary protection certificate (SPC) infringement may be instituted against him may, prior to the institution of such proceedings, can request a decision ruling that the product or process exploited or to be exploited by him does not infringe a particular SPC specified by him.
The purpose of the procedure is to prevent an infringement situation leading to a lawsuit. A final ruling declaring the lack of infringement prevents the initiation of infringement proceedings on the basis of the same certificate in respect of the same product or process.