SMEs to Benefit From New Intellectual Property Rights
A new law was introduced earlier this month to give small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) more encouragement to protect their intellectual property (IP) rights. The Patents County Court (Financial Limits) Order (No.2) 2011 provides a more clear cut definition of which disputes involving trade mark and copyright claims must be heard in the Patents County Court (PCC) and which should go to the High Court.
Prior to this, some companies were dissuaded from protecting their rights due to uncertainty over the costs involved with supporting evidence to the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth revealing that approximately one in five SMEs had given up attempting to enforce their rights.
The change in law saw the introduction a new damages cap meaning all claims of £500,000 or less, which typically involve smaller businesses, will be made in the PCC rather than be open to potential litigation in the High Court with unknown levels of financial risk. The effectiveness of the damages cap will be monitored with a formal review in 2014.
