CELEX: 62018CN0114
Language: en
Date: 2018-02-14 00:00:00
Title: Case C-114/18: Reference for a preliminary ruling from Court of Appeal (England & Wales) (Civil Division) made on 14 February 2018 — Sandoz Ltd, Hexal AG v G.D. Seale LLC, Janssen Sciences Ireland

30.4.2018   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 152/17
            
         Reference for a preliminary ruling from Court of Appeal (England & Wales) (Civil Division) made on 14 February 2018 — Sandoz Ltd, Hexal AG v G.D. Seale LLC, Janssen Sciences Ireland
   (Case C-114/18)
   (2018/C 152/20)
   Language of the case: English
   
      Referring court
   
   Court of Appeal (England & Wales) (Civil Division)
   
      Parties to the main proceedings
   
   
      Applicants: Sandoz Ltd, Hexal AG
   
      Defendants: G.D. Seale LLC, Janssen Sciences Ireland
   
      Question referred
   
   Where the sole active ingredient the subject of a supplementary protection certificate issued under [the SPC Regulation] (1) is a member of a class of compounds which fall within a Markush definition in a claim of the patent, all of which class members embody the core inventive technical advance of the patent, is it sufficient for the purposes of Article 3(a) of the SPC Regulation that the compound would, upon examination of its structure, immediately be recognised as one which falls within the class (and therefore would be protected by the patent as a matter of national patent law) or must the specific substituents necessary to form the active ingredient be amongst those which the skilled person could derive, based on their common general knowledge, from a reading of the patent claims?
   
      (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 (OJ 2009, L 152, p. 1).