Hague Court's Georgetown questions

The SPC Blog posted this piece towards the end of October on the five questions which the District Court in The Hague was referring to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a preliminary ruling in a case which has now been designated by Curia as Case C-484/12 Georgetown University. The official English version of the questions, as cut-and-pasted from the UK IPO and mildly edited, appears below:

"1. Does Article 3(c) of the Regulation preclude, in a situation where there is a basic patent in force which protects several products, the holder of the basic patent from being granted a certificate for each of the protected products?

2. If so, how should Article 3(C) be interpreted in the situation where there is one basic patent in force which protects several products, and where, at the date of the application for a certificate in respect of one of the products (A) protected by the basic patent, no certificates had in fact yet been granted in respect of other products (B, C) protected by the same basic patent, but where certificates were nevertheless granted in respect of those applications in respect of the products (B, C) before a decision was made with regard to the application for a certificate in respect of the first-mentioned product (A)?

3. Is it significant for the answer to the second question whether the application in respect of one of the products (A) protected by the basic patent was submitted on the same date as the applications in respect of other products (B, C) protected by the same basic patent?

4. If the answer to question one is in the affirmative, may a certificate be granted for a product protected by a basic patent which is in force if a certificate had already been granted earlier for another product protected by the same basic patent, but where the applicant surrenders the latter certificate with a view to obtaining a new certificate on the basis of the same basic patent?

5. If the issue of whether the surrender has retroactive effect is relevant for the purpose of answering question four, is the question of whether surrender has retroactive effect governed by Article 14(b) of the Regulation or by national law? If it is governed by Article 14(b), should that provision be interpreted to mean that surrender does have retroactive effect?".

If you would like to comment on this case and advise the UK government whether it should make any representations, please email policy@ipo.gsi.gov.uk by the agreeably generous deadline of 10 January 2013 -- a welcome change from the three or four days within which one usually needs to respond.