European Union Protection System

Abstract

Traditionally, the EU law (characterised as acquis communautaire) is divided into the primary law and the secondary law. This distinction of the EU law is not based on a hierarchy of norms but, as it is justly admitted in the legal literature, on sources: if the EU primary law originates from the EU Member States as ‘Masters of the Treaty’, the EU secondary law—directly from EU institutions. In the case of IGOs (as well as other IP objects such as trade marks, designs, patents, and plant variety rights), their regulation is ensured both by the EU primary law and the EU secondary law which will be reviewed separately in Part II of the book.