Order of the Court (Third Chamber) of 30 January 2014

Common commercial policyScopeAgreement on Trade-Related Aspects of International Property Rights (TRIPs)Commercial aspects of intellectual propertyIncluded (Arts 3(1)(e) TFEU and 207(1) TFEU; TRIPs Agreement, Art. 27) (see para. 24, operative part 1)

International agreementsAgreement on Trade-Related Aspects of International Property Rights (TRIPs)Commercial aspects of intellectual propertyPatentability of the invention of a pharmaceutical productIncluded (TRIPs Agreement, Art. 27) (see para. 24, operative part. 2)

Approximation of lawsUniform legislationIndustrial and commercial propertyPatent rightSupplementary protection certificate for medicinal productsScopeApplication for a patent covering the production process and the pharmaceutical product itselfPatent issued only for the production processWhether the pharmaceutical product is also covered under the rules laid down in Articles 27 and 70 of the TRIPs AgreementNo such cover (TRIPs Agreement, Arts 27 and 70) (see para. 24, operative part 3)

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

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.

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).

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.