post Thursday November 15, 2012
The UK Government introduced a new rule which was enforced starting on the 1stof October this year. The rule only enables rights holders of copyright and trade marks passing off and unregistered design rights with a value of up to £5000 to seek less costly resolutions to disputes related to intellectual property. Patent holders and registered designs or plant varieties cannot benefit from this rule. The orders costs will not exceed £50,000 hence the small claims track is suitable for quick IP disputes
The new rule was a response to the complaints being filed by many small and medium enterprises whom were unable to defend their IP as the costs to do so were extremely high and did not justify the trouble.
This new rule enables IP rights holders to pursue basic, low value claims through an informal hearing without the need for legal representation, it also sets a cap on the claims giving litigants more clarity on their potential financial liability and it enables the streamlining of court procedures.
In order to bring a claim to the Press Complaints Commission under the Small Claims Track, the claim must be related to a relevant IP right, must not exceed £5000 in value, and the claim maker must indicate that they wish the claim to be allocated to the small claims track and the defendant must not raise objections to that allocation.
The new rule should come as music to the ears of smaller enterprises relying on their intellectual property as their main source of competitive advantage, and whom have been dealing with such issues. However, the downside is the limited compensation as well as the limited amount of recoverable legal costs.
Whenever two parties enter a litigation, even if the claims maker wins, it is not a guaranteed financial reward, and this exacerbates the downside to the small claims track.
Source: IPO.gov.uk
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