NIPC News

Author Basher Eyre Licence CC BY-SA 2.0  Source Wikipedia, Rolls Buildin g Jane Lambert Congratulations to Richard Meade QC on his appointment to the High Court bench (see the Judicial Appointments Commission press releas e of 4 Sept 2020).  He will take up his appointment on Monday.   As I said in  Appointments to the Court of Appeal   2 Aug 2020, Sir Colin Birss's elevation to the Court of Appeal gad left a vacancy in the Patents Court. It will now be filled by Richard Meade. Interestingly. the JAC press release stated that more High Court judge announcements will be made as the year progresses. In yesterday's communication to members of the IP Bar Association, Daniel Alexander QC congratulated Richard Meade and Sir Colin Birss but also reminded us of other appointments.  The Chancellor, Sir Geoffrey Vos, will be the new Master of the Rolls.   Simon Clark, Philip Harris and Brian Whitehead have been appointed to hear ...

WIPO head office, Geneva Author Melatron Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence Source Wikipedia Jane Lambert In my experience as a domain name dispute resolution panellist for the WIPO as well as a member of the Bar who has advised and settled pleadings for both complainants and respondents, most domain name disputes are straightforward. Moreover, most complaints are decided in favour of the complainant.  Of all the cases that have been referred to WIPO since 1999, some 21,399 or nearly 86.0% have resulted in a transfer to the complainant and 407 or 1.6% in a cancellation. A complaint has been denied in only 3,086 cases making 12.4% of the total (see  Case Outcome (Consolidated): All Years   on the WIPO website). Those figures are hardly surprising as it is rare for a complaint to be defended and even rarer for a response to disclose any merit. It can therefore be said with some confidence that most panellists' decisions are likel...

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 ...