Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Approximation of laws - Uniform laws - Industrial and commercial property - Patent law - Supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products - Conditions of obtaining - Obtaining of a first authorisation to place the product on the market as a plant protection product - Product - Definition

(Parliament and Council Regulation No 1610/96, Art. 3)

2. Approximation of laws - Uniform laws - Industrial and commercial property - Patent law - Supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products - Conditions of obtaining - Product protected by a basic patent - Obtaining of a first authorisation to place the product on the market as a plant protection product - Product differing from a previously authorised product only in the proportion of the active chemical compound to the impurity it contains

(Parliament and Council Regulation No 1610/96, Art. 3(1)(a) and (d))

Summary

1. The concept of a product within the meaning of Article 3 of Regulation No 1610/96 concerning the creation of a supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products covers chemical elements and their compounds, as they occur naturally or by manufacture, including any impurity inevitably resulting from the manufacturing process, which have general or specific action against harmful organisms or on plants, parts of plants or plant products. Two products which differ only in the proportion of the active chemical compound to the impurity they contain, one having a greater percentage of the impurity than the other, must be regarded as the same product within the meaning of that article. The fact that a marketing authorisation must be obtained for the new plant protection product which has a different proportion of active chemical compound to impurity from that of the former plant protection product is not relevant for the purposes of establishing whether or not the constituent products of those plant protection products are the same.

( see paras 25, 29, 32 and operative part 1-3 )

2. The conditions laid down in Article 3(1)(a) and (d) of Regulation No 1610/96 concerning the creation of a supplementary protection certificate for plant protection products are, in any event, not all satisfied where a product, as a plant protection product, manufactured according to a patented process and the subject of a marketing authorisation, differs from a previously authorised product, as a plant protection product, only in the proportion of the active chemical compound to the impurity it contains, the percentage of impurity being greater in the older product than in the new one, and where that process patent has been designated as the basic patent.

( see para. 38 and operative part 4 )