Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2002:484
Date: 2002-09-12
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Freedom to provide services
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - successful
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Freedom to provide services — Treaty provisions — Scope — Temporary nature of 
the activities provided — Criteria — Patent agents 
(Art. 50 EC, third para.) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-131/01 
2. Freedom to provide services — Restrictions — Patent agents — Obligation to reg­
ister in the professional register — Obligation to have a residence or a place of 
business — Not permissible 
(Arts 49 EC to 55 EC) 
1. The 'temporary' nature of the carry­
ing-on of an activity providing services 
in the host Member State, within the 
meaning of the third paragraph of 
Article 50 EC, must be determined in 
the light, not only of the duration of 
the provision of the service, but also of 
its regularity, periodical nature or con­
tinuity, and the concept of 'establish­
ment' within the meaning of the Treaty 
allows a Community national to par­
ticipate, on a stable and continuous 
basis, in the economic life of a Member 
State other than his State of origin. 
The decisive criterion for the purposes 
of the application of the chapter of the 
Treaty concerning services to an econ­
omic activity is therefore the absence of 
stable and continuous participation by 
the person concerned in the economic 
life of the host Member State. 
In that regard, the activity of patent 
agents is capable of coming within the 
field of application of the Treaty 
chapter concerning the freedom to 
provide services. 
(see paras 22-23, 25) 
2. A Member State which retains rules 
requiring patent agents established in 
other Member States to be enrolled on 
the national register of patent agents 
and to have a residence or place of 
business in its territory, in order to 
provide services before the national 
Patent Office, that Member State has 
failed to fulfil its obligations under 
Articles 49 EC to 55 EC. 
(see para. 48, operative part) 
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