The institutions of the European Union which take a part in the industrial property are the following ones :
* The European Commission (20 members) which sits at Brussels. It elaborates propositions of legislation and supervises their application.
* The European Parliament (626 members) sits in Strasbourg. It elaborates and modifies the European legislation and supervises the Commission.
* The Council of the European Union (1 minister per government of the Member States and per matter, the composition changes according to the business of the day) meets most often in Brussels (not to mistake for the European Council composed of heads of states or governments of the Member States and of the president of the European Commission).
The Council and the Parliament draw up the legislation proposed by the Commission.
* The European Justice Court (EJC) (15 judges and 9 assistant public prosecutors), located in Luxembourg, attend to the respect of the community right :
- direct applicability of the community right in the Member States ;
- primacy of the community right on the national right.
Like a national court, the matter must be referred to the EJC in writing,
* either within the scope of a direct recourse of the plaintiffs before the EJC ;
- recourse in breach of a Member State which has not complied with the community right, has not enforced a judgement, has not transposed a directive within the prescribed time or has transposed it in a wrong manner ;
- recourse in annulment against an illegal act of a community institution ;
- recourse in inefficiency against inertness of the community institutions (absence of proposition by the European Commission or absence of decision of the Council of ministers) ;
- recourse in reparation of the damages brought about by organs and agents of the community institutions in the exercise of their duties ;
- appeal in cassation against the judgments of the Court of First Instance ;
* or in the case of a pre-judicial reference by a national jurisdiction.
- preliminary ruling by a national jurisdiction which consults the EJC about the interpretation of the community right or the validity of a community act. This prosecution allows to a citizen to have the community rules which concern him stated more accurately.
Since 1989, the European Justice Court is attended by a Court of First Instance (15 judges). All the matters can be transferred to this Court of First Instance, except the pre-judicial matters.
The recourses are filed in writing before the Record Office by
* the Member States and the European Commission (recourse in breach) ;
* the Member States, the community institutions (Commission, Council, Parliament, etc.) and the individuals and legal entities (recourse in reparation) ;
* the national courts (preliminary ruling)
An assistant public prosecutor and a judge in charge of legal enquiry study the matter, then the judges deliberate on the basis of the draft of judgement established by the judge in charge of legal enquiry.
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