SME’s – Easier access to Courts to pursue infringement cases
Following much pressure from ACID and other industry organisations, yesterday’s announcement of a new law will give SME’s better access to justice to protect their rights by introducing a damages cap of £500,000 for claims made in the Patents County Court (PCC). Government believes that following the introduction of this simpler legal framework small companies claiming damages up to that amount are less likely to face a considerably more expensive trip to the High Court. ACID welcomes The Patents County Court (Financial Limit) Order 2011 which gives more clarity of what disputes can be heard in the PCC and which ones should go to the High Court.
In practice this means that if a legal case is worth less than £500,000 there is more certainty about the levels of financial risk.
Dids Macdonald, ACID’s CEO said, “This has been one of our key lobbying objectives for some time and whilst we welcome, as a first step, a more accessible justice system for SME’s to enforce their IP rights. We also need a fast track IP small claims court for micro enterprises, who form the majority mass within the creative industries, and who will still find it prohibitively expensive to take legal action. We are cautiously optimistic towards this positive first step by a Government which appears to be serious about providing access to more cost and time effective justice in order for SMEs to enforce their intellectual property rights.”
