UK PATENT OFFICE ANNOUNCES ENFORCEMENT DIRECTIVE CONSULTATION

At the Hogarth Chambers Seminar last Thursday (see blog here) Gwilym Harbottle, before embarking on a paper considering how the Enforcement Directive would be implemented, noted that the Patent Office had promised a consultation on its implementation. Lo and behold, on Friday, the UK Patent Office announced a consultation regarding the UK implementation of the Directive on the enforcement of intellectual property rights (2004/48/EC).

It seems that the proposed changes are relatively limited. In England and Wales, the following (in potted form) is proposed:

*Article 5 - Changes to Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to implement additional presumptions;
*Article 9 - Clarify courts power to order security for damages against an alleged infringer while permitting the infringement to continue;
*Article 10 - Clarify courts power to order that delivery up will be carried out at the expense of the infringer;
*Article 15 - Clarify courts power to order the dissemination of a judgment of the court at the infringer's expense;
*Article 17 - By means of the consultation, encourage interested parties to submit draft codes of conduct to the Commission.

In Scotland, the proposals are as follows:

*Article 5 - Changes to Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to implement additional presumptions;
*Article 8 - Clarify position on ordering information on origin and distribution networks of goods or services which infringe intellectual property;
*Article 13 - Introduce a new head of damages for intellectual property infringement to cover the 'moral prejudice' provision in Article 13(a);
*Article 15 - Clarify court’s power to order the dissemination of a judgment of the court at the infringer’s expense;
*Article 17 - By means of the consultation, encourage interested parties to submit draft codes of conduct to the Commission.

Responses are due by 7 October. Details of how to respond are available here.

The IPKat notes that, while it is important to not take steps that will overly alienate users of IP rights, the countries which implement the Directive most effectively will have the best chance of being the forum of choice for lucrative pan-European IP litigation.