Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2019:704
Date: 2019-09-11
Language of the case: German;English
Subject matter: Intellectual, industrial and commercial property;Approximation of laws
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Request for a preliminary ruling from the Bundespatentgericht (Germany) lodged on 21 November 2017 — QH (Case C-650/17) Language of the case: German Referring court Bundespatentgericht Parties to the main proceedings Applicant: QH Questions referred Is a product protected by a basic patent in force pursuant to Article 3(a) of Regulation (EC) No 469/2009 1 only if it forms part of the subject matter of protection defined by the claims and is thus provided to the expert as a specific embodiment? Is it not therefore sufficient for the requirements of Article 3(a) of Regulation (EC) No 469/2009 if the product in question satisfies the general functional definition of a class of active ingredients in the claims, but is not otherwise indicated in individualised form as a specific embodiment of the method protected by the basic patent? Is a product not protected by a basic patent in force under Article 3(a) of Regulation (EC) No 469/2009 if it is covered by the functional definition in the claims, but was developed only after the filing date of the basic patent as a result of an independent inventive step? ____________ 1 Regulation (EC) No 469/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 concerning the supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products (Codified version) (Text with EEA relevance ) (OJ 2009 L 152, p. 1).