10.6.2014

Official Journal of the European Union

C 175/18

(Case C-372/13) (<span class="super">1</span>)

((Article 99 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) - Article 27 - Patentable Subject Matter - Article 70 - Protection of Existing Subject Matter))

2014/C 175/22

Language of the case: Greek

Referring court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicants: Warner — Lambert Company LLC, Pfizer Ellas AE

Defendant: SiegerPharma Anonimi Farmakeftiki Etairia

Re:

Request for a preliminary ruling — Polimeles Protodikio Athinon — Interpretation of Articles 27 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 of the order

1.Article 27 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 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 under the common trade policy.

2.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).

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 Articles 27 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.

(<span class="super">1</span>) OJ C 78 of 15.3.2014.