Notice for the OJ

 

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

(Second Chamber)

of 21 April 2005

in Joined Cases C-207/03 and C-252/03: References for preliminary rulings from the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, Chancery Division (Patents Court) (United Kingdom, C-207/03), and from the Cour administrative (Luxembourg, C-252/03) Novartis AG and Others v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks for the United Kingdom, and Ministre de l'Économie v Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. ¹

(Patent law - Medicinal products - Supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products)

(Languages of the case: English and French)

In Joined Cases C-207/03 and C-252/03: References for preliminary rulings under Article 234 EC from the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, Chancery Division (Patents Court) (United Kingdom, C-207/03), and from the Cour administrative (Luxembourg, C-252/03), made by decisions of 6 May and 3 June 2003, received at the Court on 14 May and 13 June 2003, in the proceedings between Novartis AG (C-207/03), University College London, Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology and Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks for the United Kingdom and between Ministre de l'Économie (C-252/03) and Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., formerly Cor Therapeutics Inc. - the Court (Second Chamber), composed of C.W.A. Timmermans, President of the Chamber, C. Gulmann (Rapporteur), J.-P. Puissochet, R. Schintgen and J.N. Cunha Rodrigues, Judges; D. Ruiz-Jarabo Colomer, Advocate General, M. Múgica Arzamendi, Administrator, for the Registrar, gave a judgment on 21 April 2005, the operative part of which is as follows:

In so far as an authorisation to place a medicinal product on the market issued by the Swiss authorities and automatically recognised by the Principality of Liechtenstein under that State's legislation is the first authorisation to place that product on the market in one of the States of the European Economic Area, it constitutes the first authorisation to place the product on the market within the meaning of Article 13 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1768/92 of 18 June 1992 concerning the creation of a supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products, as it is to be read for the purposes of the application of the Agreement on the European Economic Area.

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¹ - OJ C 158 of 05.07.2003, OJ C 200 of 23.08.2003.