Although article 222 of the EEC Treaty provides that the national systems of property law shall not be affected, intellectual property rights, rooted in the national systems, have suffered under the double impact of the free movement of goods and the competition policy. In brief, whilst the existence of such rights is guaranteed, their exercise is limited in so far as they cannot be used in order to defeat the objective of the Treaty enshrined in the rules governing trade between Member States and competition in the common market. Such conclusion has been reached by the ECJ in numerous cases despite the derogation in favour of intellectual property rights inscribed in Article 36 of the Treaty. In order to compensate for the erosion of such rights under the impact of the fundamental rules and, indeed, to maintain the protection of proRerty which is the fruit of intellect or human genius the Community had to legislate on this subject.

Although article 222 of the EEC Treaty provides that the national systems of property law shall not be affected, intellectual property rights, rooted in the national systems, have suffered under the double impact of the free movement of goods and the competition policy. In brief, whilst the existence of such rights is guaranteed, their exercise is limited in so far as they cannot be used in order to defeat the objective of the Treaty enshrined in the rules governing trade between Member States and competition in the common market. Such conclusion has been reached by the ECJ in numerous cases despite the derogation in favour of intellectual property rights inscribed in Article 36 of the Treaty. In order to compensate for the erosion of such rights under the impact of the fundamental rules and, indeed, to maintain the protection of proRerty which is the fruit of intellect or human genius the Community had to legislate on this subject.