The Patent Office consults on Representative Actions

In a consultation launched today The Patent Office is asking the business community and other interests for their views on the introduction of representative actions for the enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights.

Feedback received during the recent implementation of the IP Enforcement Directive highlighted the need for the Patent Office to consult further with interests on this complex issue. An example of a representative action would be an action undertaken by a trade association on behalf of some or all of its members to defend their intellectual property rights.

Publishing the consultation The Patent Office CEO Ron Marchant said:

"The consultation should establish whether the introduction of representative actions will provide real benefits in terms of reduced enforcement costs, and check whether such actions would encourage inappropriate litigation."

The Patent Office is running a series of workshops for anyone who is interested in finding out more before they make a formal response to the consultation.

The consultation is open to anyone who wishes to respond and will run for twelve weeks, ending on 18 December, 2006.

Jeff Watson

Intellectual Property Office
Concept House
Cardiff Road
Newport
South Wales
NP10 8QQ
United Kingdom

Tel: +44(0)1633 814397
Fax: +44(0)1633 814922
E-mail:  consultation@patent.gov.uk

Editors' notes:

• A copy of the IP Enforcement Directive (506Kb) is available on this website.
• Representative actions were considered during the implementation of IP Enforcement Directive (2004/48/EC) with respect to Article 4 (Persons entitled to apply for the application of the measures, procedures and remedies)
• The Directive did not make provision for and did not require us to introduce them. However, given the range of comments received, we concluded further investigation was needed.
• The aim of the consultation is to establish whether representative actions for intellectual property rights will provide real benefits, particularly for SME’s, in terms of litigation costs whilst not encouraging inappropriate litigation
• Where possible, litigation should be avoided, and consequently we launched a mediation service earlier this year.
• Workshops will be held on Wednesday 11 October 2006 and Wednesday 18 October 2006.

Date of release: 26 September 2006