Order of the Court (Third Chamber) of 30January 2014— Warner-Lambert and Pfizer Ellas
(Case C‑372/13)
Article99 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court— Questions referred for a preliminary ruling which are identical to questions on which the Court has already made a ruling— Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of International Property Rights (TRIPs)— Article27— Patentable Subject Matter— Article70— Protection of Existing Subject Matter
1.Common commercial policy— Scope— Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of International Property Rights (TRIPs) — Commercial aspects of intellectual property— Included (Arts 3(1)(e) TFEU and 207(1) TFEU; TRIPs Agreement, Art. 27) (see para. 24, operative part 1)
2.International agreements—Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of International Property Rights (TRIPs) — Commercial aspects of intellectual property— Patentability of the invention of a pharmaceutical product — Included (TRIPs Agreement, Art. 27) (see para. 24, operative part. 2)
3.Approximation of laws— Uniform legislation— Industrial and commercial property— Patent right— Supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products — Scope— Application for a patent covering the production process and the pharmaceutical product itself — Patent issued only for the production process— Whether the pharmaceutical product is also covered under the rules laid down in Articles27 and 70 of the TRIPs Agreement— No such cover (TRIPs Agreement, Arts 27 and 70) (see para. 24, operative part 3)
Re:
| Request for a preliminary ruling— Polimeles Protodikio Athinon— Interpretation of Articles27 and 70 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of International Property Rights (‘TRIPs’) annexed to the Agreement establishing the ‘World Trade Organisation’ (OJ 1994, L 336, p.214)— Distinction drawn between fields falling within the scope of Community law and those falling within the competence of the Member States— Field of patents— Chemical and pharmaceutical products. |
Operative part
1. |
| Article27 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, which constitutes Annex 1C to the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation (WTO), signed at Marrakesh on 15April 1994 and approved by Council Decision 94/800/EC of 22December 1994 concerning the conclusion on behalf of the European Community, as regards matters within its competence, of the agreements reached in the Uruguay Round multilateral negotiations (1986-1994), falls under the common trade policy. |
2. |
| Article27 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights must be interpreted as meaning that the invention of a pharmaceutical product such as the active chemical compound of a medicinal product is, in the absence of a derogation in accordance with Article27(2) or (3), capable of being the subject-matter of a patent, under the conditions set out in Article27(1). |
3. |
| A patent obtained following an application claiming the invention both of the process of manufacture of a pharmaceutical product and of the pharmaceutical product as such, but granted solely in relation to the process of manufacture, must not, by reason of the rules set out in Articles27 and 70 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, be regarded, as from the date of entry into force of that agreement, as covering the invention of that pharmaceutical product. |