An IPR court for SMEs

Every active company generates Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). Setting out a practical, cost-effective plan for capturing and protecting a company's patents, designs, trade marks, copyright and know-how it is an important, and often vital first step. Of course, acquiring IPRs is only a part of the story. Once a strategy is in place for generating, capturing and protecting IPRs, you need to use those rights somehow.

IPRs can be used in many ways to add value to a business. The hope is that IPR can be used passively. This is normally achieved through marking, but appropriate policing and warning letters are also useful tools for a company looking to keep competitors away in order to receive the full benefit of their IPR. However, sometimes it is necessary to actively enforce IPRs through dispute resolution.

The UK has a flexible dispute resolution system that allows a company to resolve a dispute with a competitor through a range of actions. At the low-cost end there are non-binding Patent Office opinions. At the other end there are lengthy and complex, non-streamlined High Court actions. Under new procedures that came into affect in 1 October 2010, the Patents County Court (PCC) is reinventing itself as a new middle ground specifically aimed at providing access to justice for SMEs. Specifically, the PCC is set to be reserved for lower value, less complex IPR disputes (not just patent disputes as the name may suggest).

Unlike the lower cost options, the PCC will be able to award the full range of relief including injunctions and damages (albeit probably to be capped at £500,000). Importantly however, the reformed PCC provides a streamlined procedure, which, in addition to a very important cap on the costs awarded against the losing party of £50,000, should lead to a reduction in the overall costs incurred by both parties. Consequently, it is hoped that the PCC will offer SMEs a new tool in their armoury to ensure their IPRs provide maximum commercial benefit.