Patent – Infringement. The Patents Court considered issues in a dispute concerning the validity of a pharmaceutical patent, of which the defendant company was the proprietor. Among other things, the court decided to refer a question to the Court of Justice of the European Union. The question referred was whether European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) 469/2009 precluded the grant of a supplementary protection certificate to the proprietor of a basic patent in respect of a product which was the subject of a marketing authorisation held by a third party without that party's consent.