EU trumps Member States over TRIPS

Case C‑414/11, Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd, Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH v DEMO Anonimos Viomikhaniki kai Emporiki Etairia Farmakon, a reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union from the Greek Polimeles Protodikio Athinon, resulted in a ruling last week.

While this case does involve an SPC (for levofloxacin hemihydrate, marketed as Tavanic), the reference was not so much about SPCs as about the relationship of EU law and the law of EU Member States to the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The CJEU concluded that TRIPS does not have retrospective effect in EU Member States and that it falls within the exclusive competence of the EU and not the Member States.

To get a swift summary of the decision, you can speed-read through the Curia press release here.