"OH WON'T YOU STAY?"; IP ENFORCEMENT DIRECTIVE AND LONDON 2013

"Oh won't you stay?"

Right: victory celebrations may be premature if you have to wait till the ECJ explains what the Directive means before a court can award you the right amount of damages

Something earth-shattering has dawned on the IPKat. All 25 countries currently within the European Union, together with Bulgaria and Romania (whose admission is but a few short weeks away) must subscribe to the IP Enforcement Directive whether they understand it or not. It won't be long before the provisions of that Directive relating to judicial remedies are (mis)construed by national, regional or pan-European courts in some or all of those countries. This in turn will require courts to refer questions to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a preliminary ruling.

Left: successful claimants in IP infringement proceedings line up for their interim damages pending ECJ rulings

What the IPKat is thinking is this: once the first questions relating to the meaning of, say, "moral prejudice" damages have been fired off to the ECJ, for answer that will be the best part of two years coming, will parties held liable in subsequent litigation succeed in applying for stays of damages awards until the ECJ will have made its pronouncement? If so, there may be a glorious backlog of cases awaiting final orders as to damages. Merpel adds, "I've been browsing through the Directive in search of anything concerning interim damages awards. Can't find it though ..."


London 2013

London's supposed to be hosting the Olympic Games in 2012, but dark rumours abound that, in keeping with British civil engineering tradition, the physical infrastructure - the venues, accommodation and new transport - will be delivered late and substantially over budget. The IPKat has started to wonder (i) whether the London Olympic Committee will apply to have the games stayed until an appropriate forum conveniens for the competitors can be completed and (ii) whether that pesky puss Merpel has already applied to register the words LONDON 2013 in all Classes of the Nice Classification.

More on London 2013 here from the e-Government blog