TRANSLATED SUMMARIES

ENGLISH

In France, the Minister of Ecology has issued an Order to facilitate the purchase of electricity generated by wind. The text is being challenged before the "Conseil d’Etat" (State Council) for illegality, in that it constitutes state aid. The State Council considers the matter serious enough to suspend the proceeding and seized the Court of Justice of the European Union of a preliminary question on 15 May 2012.

FRENCH

En France, le ministre de l’Ecologie a émis une ordonnance afin de faciliter l’achat de l’électricité produite par le vent. Le texte est actuellement contestée devant le «Conseil d’Etat" (Conseil d’Etat) pour cause d’illégalité, en ce qu’elle constitue une aide d’Etat. Le Conseil d’Etat considère que l’affaire suffisamment grave pour suspendre la procédure et saisi la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne d’une question préjudicielle le 15 mai 2012.

Complete reference: CE, May 15, 2012, Association Vent de colère! Fédération nationale et autres, n°324852

The European Directive of 6 July 1998 on the legal protection of biotechnology inventions excludes the human embryo of the mechanism of the patent. A patent is filed in Germany on purified brain stem cells. German Federal Patent Court cancels the patent, because it would be on the human being. The one who filed the patent appeals, arguing that a text that refuses the patentability of the embryo is not about stem cells. Asked for a preliminary ruling by the National Court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) delivers, in a Grand Chamber a judgment on October, 18 2011, asking that the Directive by designating the human embryo has designated the mechanisms of cell division. This extensive conception leaves a possible place for the stem cells. They can therefore be also excluded from patentability.