City Research Online

Abstract

Over the course of this report, we analyse both quantitatively and qualitatively the impact of the 2010­ 2013 reforms undertaken at the former Patents County Court (PCC), now the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC). The reforms introduced a number of changes staggered over the period 2010­ 2013, including a cap on recoverable costs and damages, a reduction of the length as well as complexity of court actions, and a reconstitution of the PCC as the IPEC. In our quantitative case counts we find that there has been a large increase in the quantity of cases filed at the IPEC, post-reforms, while through a comparative study of the High Court (HC) and Patents Court (PHC) we show that with the exception of patent cases, there has not been a corresponding increase in cases at the higher level. We find quantitative and qualitative evidence that the costs cap and active case management by the IPEC judge have been the most influential reforms with respect to the large increase in cases filed at the IPEC post-reforms. We also note that case filings by SMEs have increased substantially following the reforms, fulfilling one of the key aims of the reforms. Importantly, we find that this effect is driven by changes at the extensive (more claimants) and intensive (more cases per claimant) margins of litigation behaviour at the IPEC. Finally, we provide a theoretical model that allows us to gauge the effect of the reforms on those IP disputes that never reach a court. Our theoretical predictions suggest that in addition to encouraging more IPEC case filings, the reforms have had the effect of increasing the quantity of out-of-court settlements as well.

Publication Type:	Report
Publisher Keywords:	Litigation, intellectual property, court reform, UK
Subjects:	K Law > K Law (General)
Departments:	The City Law School > Academic Programmes

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