Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Preliminary rulings Jurisdiction of the Court Interpretation of an international agreement concluded by the Community and the Member States under joint competence and having a bearing on the application by national courts of Community provisions Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs)

(EC Treaty, Art. 177 (now Art. 234 EC); TRIPS Agreement, Art. 50)

2. International agreements Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Article 50(6) Direct effect None Obligations of national courts Distinction drawn between fields falling within the scope of Community law and those falling within the competence of the Member States

(TRIPs Agreement, Art. 50)

3. International agreements Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Intellectual property right Concept Right to sue under general provisions of national law concerning wrongful acts in order to protect an industrial design against copying Classification with regard to that concept a matter for the Contracting Parties

(TRIPs Agreement, Art. 50(1))

Summary

1. Where the judicial authorities of the Member States are called upon to order provisional measures for the protection of intellectual property rights falling within the scope of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPs Agreement), as set out in Annex 1 C to the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation, approved on behalf of the Community, as regards matters within its competence, by Decision 94/800, and a case is brought before the Court of Justice in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty, in particular Article 177 thereof (now Article 234 EC), the Court of Justice has jurisdiction to interpret Article 50 of the TRIPs Agreement.

( see para. 40 and operative part 1 )

2. The provisions of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPs Agreement), an annex to the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation, are not such as to create rights upon which individuals may rely directly before the courts by virtue of Community law.

However, in a field to which the TRIPs Agreement applies and in respect of which the Community has already legislated, the judicial authorities of the Member States are required by virtue of Community law, when called upon to apply national rules with a view to ordering provisional measures for the protection of rights falling within such a field, to do so as far as possible in the light of the wording and purpose of Article 50 of the TRIPs Agreement.

In a field in which the Community has not yet legislated and which consequently falls within the competence of the Member States, the protection of intellectual property rights, and measures adopted for that purpose by the judicial authorities, do not fall within the scope of Community law. Accordingly, Community law neither requires nor forbids that the legal order of a Member State should accord to individuals the right to rely directly on the rule laid down by Article 50(6) of the TRIPs Agreement or that it should oblige the courts to apply that rule of their own motion.

( see paras 44, 49 and operative part 2 )

3. Article 50 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPs Agreement) leaves to the Contracting Parties, within the framework of their own legal systems, the task of specifying whether the right to sue under general provisions of national law concerning wrongful acts, in particular unlawful competition, in order to protect an industrial design against copying is to be classified as an intellectual property right within the meaning of Article 50(1) of the TRIPs Agreement.

( see para. 63 and operative part 3 )