Sir Hugh Laddie – former High Court judge, Professor of Intellectual Property Law at University College London – slams UK’s IP system
He states:
“Recently, the European Patent Office gathered information on the relative costs of litigation across Europe. It disclosed that to litigate a small to medium-sized patent case in England costs between three and ten times as much as the same case in Germany or the Netherlands.”and:
“Not everyone in the English legal system is concerned. Recently, a senior person in the patent field said that things were not really that bad – the diary of the Patents Court in London (part of the High Court) was very busy for the next 15 months. However, a dispassionate examination of the figures shows how bad the position is. Last year there were 500 patent trials in Germany. In England there were only 12 that reached judgment at first instance. No judge in that court heard more than four patent cases that went all the way to judgment.”
and most damningly:
“A legal system that is outside the financial reach of most of the population undermines the rule of law.”
He has hit the sodding nail on the bloody head, frankly.
Thus we have a definitive admission that the IP system in the UK is “lawless”.
Thanks for watching.
DT.
PS I would like to meet this “senior [idiot] in the patent field”.
Source: The Times
posted by Deep Thunk @ 13:22
2 Comments:
For once I nearly agree with you on something!
The litigation system in the UK is too costly, although to quote Laddie on Longmore's comments 'if he was singling out IP litigation for condemnation, he was wrong to do so'.
But I would not have gone as far as to say that the UK system is 'lawless' - it just needs refining to make it cheaper.
As Laddie says, the quality of British justice and judgements is admirable, and the procedures are relatively quick compared to other countries, but this comes at a price, literally.
They have tried various things over the years which have improved the situation, and judges do now look unfavourably on litigants who have not tried to settle their cases amicably.
And of course it works both ways - no-one really wants to litigate of they can help it, and in my view if a large company is faced with a potential infringment action of a small company's patent, it is cheaper and easier to reach a settlement than to risk the bad publicity and potentially high costs of a lawsuit, despite the financial advantage.
BV
As Sir Hugh Laddie points out, the UK’s IP system undermines the rule of law.
This is why our innovation rate has crashed.
Theft from innovators is rife and is a de-facto business process.
This will be murderous to the UK’s economy, and to our society.
Get it?
DT.
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