Generics v Synaptech: on Curia at last

The questions for reference to the European Court of Justice by the Court of Appeal, England and Wales, in Case C-427/09 Generics (UK) Ltd v Synaptech Inc on 23 October (see SPC Blog here) were lodged with the ECJ on 28 October 2009. However, it was not until today that they were posted on the Curia website.

To remind readers, the questions referred are as follows:

"For the purposes of Article 13(1) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1768/92, is the "first authorisation to place the product on the market in the Community" the first authorisation to place the product on the market in the Community which was issued in accordance with Council Directive 65/65/EEC (now replaced with Directive 2001/83/EC) or will any authorisation that enables the product to be placed on the market in the Community or EEA suffice?

If, for the purposes of Article 13(1) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1768/92, an "authorisation to place the product on the market in the Community" must have been issued in accordance with Directive 65/65/EEC (now replaced with Directive 2001/83/EC), is an authorisation that was granted in 1963 in Austria in accordance with the national legislation in force at that time (which did not comply with the requirements of Directive 65/65/EEC) and that was never amended to comply with Directive 65/65/EEC and was ultimately withdrawn in 2001 to be treated as an authorisation granted in accordance with Directive 65/65/EEC for that purpose?"

This writer assumes that the reason why it takes so long for the Curia website to post questions is that they have to be translated into all of the EU's official languages. If this is so, it seems anomalous that this should be the case for the questions referred but not for Advocate Generals' Opinions or court decisions, which are frequently posted initially in a minority of languages.