European Union – Patents. Article 3(a) of Regulation (EC) No 469/2009 should be interpreted as meaning that a product composed of several active ingredients with a combined effect was 'protected by a basic patent in force' within the meaning of that provision where, even if the combination of active ingredients of which that product was composed was not expressly mentioned in the claims of the basic patent, those claims related necessarily and specifically to that combination. The Court of Justice of the European Union so held in a preliminary ruling in proceedings concerning the validity of a supplementary protection certificate granted to the respondent company for a pharmaceutical product for the treatment of HIV.