10.6.2014

Official Journal of the European Union

C 175/20

(Case C-462/13) (<span class="super">1</span>)

((Article 99 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice - Questions referred for a preliminary ruling identical to questions on which the Court has already ruled - Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) - Article 27 - Patentable Subject Matter - Article 70 - Protection of Existing Subject Matter))

2014/C 175/24

Language of the case: Greek

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicants: Warner — Lambert Company LLC, Pfizer Ellas AE

Defendant: Minerva Farmakeftiki AE

Re:

Request for a preliminary ruling — Polymeles Protodikeio Athens — Interpretation of Articles 27 and 70 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (‘TRIPS’) annexed to the Agreement establishing the ‘World Trade Organization’ (OJ L 336, p. 214) — Distinction between areas of Community law and those within the competence of Member States — Patenting — chemicals and pharmaceuticals

Operative part of the order

1.Article 27 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 Article 27(2) or (3), capable of being the subject-matter of a patent, under the conditions set out in Article 27(1).

2.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, does not, by reason of the rules set out in Articles 27 and 70 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, have to be regarded from the entry into force of that agreement as covering the invention of that pharmaceutical product.

3.Article 27 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, constituting Annex 1C to the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation (WTO), signed at Marrakesh on 15 April 1994 and approved by Council Decision 94/800/EC of 22 December 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 within the field of the common commercial policy.

(<span class="super">1</span>) OJ C 78, 15.03.2014.