The Opinion of Advocate General Wathelet in the UK reference for a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case C-121/17 (Teva UK Ltd and others v Gilead Sciences Inc.) was posted on the Curia website (here) this morning. At the time of this blogpost, the Opinion was only available in French.
As a recap, the referring court asked the following question:
As a recap, the referring court asked the following question:
What are the criteria for deciding whether "the product is protected by a basic patent in force" in Article 3(a) of Regulation No. 469/20091 ?The Advocate General has advised the Court to rule as follows (thanks to Google translate):
"Article 3 (a) of Regulation (EC) No 469/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 concerning the supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products, precludes the issue of a certificate supplementary protection relating to active ingredients which do not appear in the wording of the claims of the basic patent. The fact that a substance or composition falls within the scope of the protection of the basic patent is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for constituting a product protected by a patent within the meaning of Article 3 (a) of Regulation No 469/2009.
A product is protected by a patent within the meaning of Article 3 (a) of that Regulation if, on the priority date of the patent, it would have been obvious to a person skilled in the art that the active ingredient in question was specifically and specifically identifiable in the wording of the claims of the basic patent. In the case of a combination of active ingredients, each active ingredient in that combination must be specifically and precisely as well as individually identifiable in the wording of the claims of the basic patent."
1 comment:
Specifically and specifically? :-)
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