SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN IP CASES; A PLEA FOR HELP

A famous example of summary judgment from Alice in Wonderland

IPKat co-proprietor Jeremy is currently writing an article on summary judgment and striking out in intellectual property proceedings. For those readers who are not familiar with the terms, "summary judgment" is where the judge issues an order in favour of one or other party without letting the matter under dispute go to a full argument before the court, on the basis that the successful party's case on the disputed point is so strong that his adversary has no chance of succeeding against it. "Striking out" is where the court orders all or part of a claim or a defence to be removed from the dispute on the ground that it is so weak or unjustifiable that there is no justification in leaving it to be resolved at trial.

If any reader of the IPKat weblog has any interesting thoughts, strong opinions or valuable experiences of summary judgment and striking out, Jeremy would be most excited to hear about them. Please email him here and tell him. When the draft article is finished (realistically, some time in June), he will make it available on the blog for anyone who wants to read it. The article will focus mainly on UK law but, if there are any lessons out there which lawyers in other jurisdictions can teach us, those lessons will be highly welcome.

More summary judgment in Alice in Wonderland (click here and scroll down to the mouse's tale).