WIPO Lex-Judgments: the global free database of judicial decisions has been launched!

On 24 September 2020, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched its new free database WIPO Lex-Judgments, which contains judicial decisions on IP matters from around the world. 

The database can be accessed through the portal WIPO LEX, which already contains various IP laws and treaties worldwide. 

The features

WIPO Lex-Judgments is available in English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, French, and Russian. So far, the database comprises over 400 decisions from the following ten countries:

• Australia (10 decisions)
• Brazil (36 decisions)
• Chile (50 decisions)
• China (30 decisions)
• Costa Rica (83 decisions)
• Jamaica (11 decisions)
• Mexico (76 decisions)
• Peru (72 decisions)
• Republic of Korea (20 decisions)
• Spain (34 decisions)

WIPO highlighted that the judgments were “selected directly by the courts or other national authorities of each member state as leading decisions due to their significant impact or precedential value”. Likewise, the judgments were issued inter alia by specialised courts and “administrative entities that carry out quasi-judicial functions”. 

The decisions can be reviewed in its original language and include automatic machine translation tools into several languages (WIPO Translate and Google Translate).

An overview of judicial administration structures for IP disputes is available on some of the profiles of the Members [click below “Judgments (… Citations)”]. This section contains a summary of the administrative and judicial procedures, IP-specific features, case statistics, and links to the official databases of the judgments. 

The search criteria

WIPO Lex-Judgments allows searching for decisions per the following criteria: 

• Country
• Subject matter (e.g. copyright, patents, trademarks, enforcement of IP, geographical indications, competition, traditional knowledge [TK], traditional cultural expressions, transfer of technology)
• Issuing authority (e.g. Specialized Court on IP, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court)
• Level of the issuing authority (first, appellate, and final instance)
• Type of procedure (administrative, civil, commercial, constitutional, administrative [judicial], criminal)
• Relevant national legislation
• Relevant treaties
• Date of judgment
• Relevant keywords

  

Considering that the database is part of WIPO LEX, cross-references to the applicable national laws and international treaties are available when a judgment is reviewed. 

It is expected that more decisions will continue to be added to the database. WIPO encourages Member States interested in contributing judgments to get in touch here. 

Comments

The launch of WIPO Lex-Judgments was widely expected. As WIPO stressed, the database “is a direct response to the needs expressed by numerous member states, initially from the Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC region) and Spain”. 

In this sense, the database provides valuable insights into the judgments and courts’ reasonings from different jurisdictions. Likewise, it sheds light on the judicial administration structures for IP disputes of some countries. 

Overall, WIPO Lex-Judgments is a useful tool, in particular to practitioners, researchers, and policymakers. 

Certainly, this TechieKat is rubbing her paws to see more decisions from different jurisdictions added to WIPO Lex-Judgments! 

Watch here the video showing some highlights of the database! 

Update June 2021: 

So far, the database comprises nearly 800 decisions from 14 jurisdictions. Four* jurisdictions were added in June 2021, and more decisions are available from some countries**:

• Andean Community* (102 decisions)
• Australia** (88 decisions)
• Brazil** (75 decisions)
• Lithuania* (4 decisions)
• Philippines* (10 decisions)
• Republic of Korea** (25 decisions)
• Spain** (66 decisions)
• United States of America* (101 decisions)

Sources: the press release published by WIPO, WIPO Lex-Judgments and WIPO newsletter.

Credit: image of Gerd Altmann on Pixabay.