NIPC News

  Royal Courts of Justice Photo Michael Reeve Source Wikipedia Creative Commons Licence Jane Lambert It is not often that one receives an accolade from a client. Usually, if a client wins, it is down to the natural justice of the case and nothing to do with the eloquence or preparation of the advocate. If the client loses, it's all the lawyer's fault. So it was lovely to receive thanks from a public access client earlier this week whose case in the small IP claims track has just been resolved to his satisfaction. The client said that it actually took him a very long time to find someone who truly understands IP the way I do, especially in relation to e-commerce and added that there is certainly a market there for me to tackle. Although the case was in the small claims track it was not an easy one.  Had the claim not settled a novel point of law would have to have been decided and there were also procedural issues that required several prelimina...

Upon seeing the above presentation one of my Yorkshire clients sent me the following rant: "Hello Jane, I have just finished watching your Enforcing IPR talk. Very impressive. The UK law is so dysfunctional and financially prohibitive — serving only the financial elite. I have to say, having listened to it, it reinforces what I have been saying to you for some time ... Why bother with IPR? I mean, why bother with protecting IPR if it is just not within financial reach to defend it? ADR could be the beneficiary of such prohibitive costs, but not really. For example, if one entity is more financially endowed than the other it actually is a strategy to threaten the other side with the court system, if only because they know it will bankrupt the other side. The courts no longer represent fairness, or right over wrong. The UK law is so dysfunctional and financially prohibitive — serving only the financial elite. I feel quite depressed to be honest! Kind regards" There...

Jane Lambert Yesterday the Ministry of Justice increased fees for issuing proceedings to 5% of the value of the claim for claims over £10,000 with a cap of £10,000 for claims of £200,000 or over.  For some claims that it is a whopping 622% increase in fees.  The statutory instrument that effects those increases is  The Civil Proceedings and Family Proceedings Fees (Amendment) Order 2015 which is available only in draft on the legislation.gov.uk website. For entrepreneurs, designers and inventors this fees increase is very bad news because most IP infringement claims are for injunctions and unspecified damages. As I explained in Why "IP Yorkshire?"   10 Sept 2008    there is a correlation between patenting and the cost of enforcement. That is why this country consistently trails not only France and Germany in the number of European  patent applications but also the Netherlands with a third of our population and Switzerland with one ...