New Jurisdiction On Infringement Of Foreign Intellectual Property Right In

By Dr Stuart Hudson1

Recent English decisions have paved the way for English courts to apply foreign intellectual property laws to the infringement of foreign IP rights in cases in which the court is "seized of jurisdiction" (ie given the ability to hear this matter) pursuant to the 1968 Brussels and 1989 Lugano Conventions on jurisdiction in cases relating to the European Economic Area (EEA)2. In these cases, if one defendant can be sued pursuant to the Conventions' rules then the potential exists to consolidate in one English action claims against different defendants for the infringement of IP rights existing in different jurisdictions.

An English court could be the venue for hearing a pharmaceutical company's legal action for infringement of its patents for compound/drug X in France, Australia, the USA, Malaysia and the Yemen against a different defendant for each of those countries. However, this ability to consolidate infringement actions is subject to some limitations.