ECJ ROCHE PHARMACEUTICAL PATENT CASE
January 1st, 2006
BY ALAN OSBORN
Legal action by and against drugs firms over patent infringement in the EU will become much more expensive and cumbersome if a preliminary ruling by an advocate general at the European Court of Justice is upheld by the full court (likely but not certain). It means anyone suing must do so in every country where there is a patent infringement - in other words the cases may not be grouped together and heard in just one court as in the past. The judge says Article 6 Point 1 of the Brussels Convention, which effectively allows the grouping of cases, ...
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