NIPC Law

Author Paste   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0     Soutce Wikimedia   Jane Lambert intellectual Property Enterprise Court  (John Kimbell QC)  Photobooth Props Ltd and another v NEPBH Ltd and others    [2022] EWHC 750 (IPEC) (1 April 2022) These were interlocutory applications by both claimants and defendants in an action for copyright infringement and rescission of a contract. The works alleged to have been infringed were artwork for the panels on the outside of photo booths known as "skins". The claimants claimed copyright in works that had been made by one Lie Xie, a director of the second claimant, whch were referred to as "the new works" and works in which copyright was said to have been assigned to the second claimant by the first defendant known as "the assigned works". The claimants applied for summary judgment under CPR Part 24  of their copyright claim,  The defendants applied to strike out allegations of fraudulent misrepresentation in su...

Manchester Civil Justice Centre Photo Michaelmazr   Licence CC BY-SA 4.0   S ource Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Since the 1 Oct 2010, intellectual property claims of £500,000 or less that can be tried in no more than 2 days have been eligible to proceed in what was previously the Patents County Court and is now the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court ("IPEC)  (see New Patents County Court Rules   31 Oct 2010). The advantages of litigating in IPEC are that parties know from an early stage precisely when their trial will take place and judgment be delivered and their maximum liability for the other side's costs. The timetable is strictly enforced and the work that has to be done on case preparation is controlled. Shorter Trials Scheme Some of those advantages are now available for claims for more than £500,000 in the Business and Property Courts that have been issued on or after 1 Oct 2015 and can be tried in 4 days or less under a regime known as "the Shor...

Interior of the Royal Courts of Justice Author Aurelien Guichard Licence Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.0 Generic Source Wikipedi a Jane Lambert Just over 6 years ago the Patents County Court Small Claims Track was launched (see my article Soon there will be a Remedy if Someone steals your Idea   19 Sept 2012 NIPC Inventors Club). I was very enthusiastic about the new court and wrote a lot about it as you can see from the bibliography in Small IP Claims   31 Jan 2017 NIPC News).  The reason for my enthusiasm was that it seemed to make IP litigation affordable for thousands of start-ups and other small businesses that felt that the law provided no effective protection for their investments in branding, design, technology and creativity  because enforcement  of their rights was too expensive and too uncertain.  Before the Civil Procedure Rules came into force in 1999 claims often began with an application for inter...

Manchester Civil Justice Centre Author Skip88 Licence  Copyright waived by the author Source  Wikipedia Jane Lambert According to TaylorWessing's Patent Map , England and Wales remains the most expensive country in Europe in which to contest a patent action. The European Patent Office reports that the UK lay 9th in the number of European patent applications that were filed in 2017 trailing not just the USA, Japan, China and Germany which are considerably bigger in population and GDP than the UK but France, South Korea, Switzerland and the Netherlands that are the same size or smaller (see  European patent filings per country of origin ). It seems likely that the UK's relatively lacklustre performance in the number of European patent applications is connected to the high cost of enforcement.  I have plenty of anecdotal evidence from my practice, patent clinics and inventors' clubs to support that contention. One of the reason...

I discussed HM Government's proposal to introduce a new small claims track for the Patents County Court from the beginning of October 2012 in "The New Small IP Claims Jurisdiction"  (5 March 2012) and "Small IP Claims"  (Chambers website 8 May 2012). We now have the rules for the new court. Overview Rule 10 of The Civil Procedure (Amendment No.2) Rules 2012 (S! 2012 No 2208) amends Part 63 of the Civil Procedure Rules as follows: "Amendments to the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 10. In Part 63— (a) In the table of contents, after the entry for rule 63.26, insert— 'Allocation to the small claims track ........... Rule 63.27 Extent to which rules in this Part apply to small claims ........... Rule 63.28;' (b) in rule 63.1 (3), for 'Claims', substitute 'Save as provided in rule 63.27, claims'; and (c) after rule 63.26 , insert— 'Allocation to the small claims track 63.27.—(1) A claim started in or transferred to a p...