The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC; previously the Patents County Court or PCC) in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

is an alternative venue within the

High Court of England and Wales The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (England ...

for bringing legal actions involving

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

matters such as

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

s, registered designs,

trade mark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a product or service from a particular source and distinguishes it from oth ...

s, unregistered design rights and

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

. Hearings are usually conducted in the at the Rolls Building in

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, or in the

Manchester Civil Justice Centre Manchester Civil Justice Centre is a governmental building in Manchester, England. Completed in 2007, it houses Manchester's county court and the Manchester District Registry of the High Court of Justice, High Court, the city's family proceedin ...

(or a number of other regional venues) for

small claims Small-claims courts have limited jurisdiction to hear civil cases between private litigants. Courts authorized to try small claims may also have other judicial functions, and go by different names in different jurisdictions. For example, it ma ...

Original establishment

Originally established in 1990 by an order made under Section 287 (1) of the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (c. 48), also known as the CDPA, is an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received royal assent on 15 November 1988. It reformulates almost completely the statutory ba ...

,The Patents County Court (Designation and Jurisdiction) Order 1990 SI No. 1496. This was subsequently revoked and replaced by The Patents County Court (Designation and Jurisdiction) Order 1994 SI No. 1609, which has in turn been amended by The High Court and County Courts Jurisdiction (Amendment) Order 2005 SI No. 587. the intention was that the PCC should be a forum where simpler cases could be dealt with under a cheaper and more streamlined procedure than the High Court. In practice, following the

Woolf Reforms The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) were introduced in 1997 as per the Civil Procedure Act 1997 by the Civil Procedure Rule Committee and are the rules of English civil procedure, civil procedure used by the Court of Appeal, High Court of Justice, an ...

of 1998, the streamlined procedure was then available in all courts. One remaining difference was that cases at the PCC could be argued by

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

s or

patent attorney A patent attorney is an attorney who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice, such as filing patent applications and o ...

s, rather than having to be presented by separate qualified

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

2010 revitalisation

In order to revitalise the court and provide some procedural distinction from the High Court, a new set of procedural rules were introduced in Autumn 2010, at the same time that (as he then was) His Honour

Colin Birss Sir Colin Ian Birss (born December 1964 in Thurso) is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Career Birss attended Largs Academy and then Lancaster Royal Grammar School. He graduated from Downing College, Cambridge in 1986 with a ...

was appointed as the judge of the PCC. These rules meant that much more detail was required in the particulars of claim (the document that sets out the claimant's case), the procedure as a whole was streamlined further (no disclosure, no examination in chief of expert witness, tight control by the Judge of the issues that go to trial) and financial limits were introduced to both the damages (at £500,000) and the legal costs (at £50,000, now £60,000, with an additional cap per stage) recoverable. Trials should last no more than two days. The revitalised court has been generally viewed as a success.

Move to the High Court

As of 1 October 2013, the PCC was reformulated as the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, a specialist subdivision of the Business and Property Courts within the High Court. Whilst the IPEC is now part of the High Court, Patent and Trade Mark attorneys retain their rights of audience and litigation. Cases can be transferred from the IPEC list to be heard by the main High Court at the discretion of the IPEC; the High Court also routinely transfers cases from its list to the IPEC. As with the High Court, appeals from IPEC decisions (if leave to appeal is granted) are heard by the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

.Civil Procedure Rules Practice Direction 52, paragraph 2A.2(2).

Judges

Cases are heard by the judge or an appointed deputy judge. Since the founding of the court, there have been four judges: * September 1990 to September 2000 : Peter Ford * Autumn 2001 to Autumn 2010 : Judge Michael Fysh QC * Autumn 2010 to Summer 2013: Colin Birss QC * December 2013 onward: Richard Hacon

References

{{reflist

External links

The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court on the Ministry of Justice's site

The Guide to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court
The Work of the Patents County Court
by Judge Michael Fysh QC, (Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre (OIPRC) Working Paper Series No 3, February 2003).
UK Patents County Court - Phoenix Risen?
by Michael Burdon, partner at

Olswang Olswang was an international law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom and with additional offices in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Brussels, Madrid, Paris, Singapore and, since 2011, Munich. It worked closely with a network of firms across ...

solicitors, (Patent World, July/August 2003). Courts of England and Wales United Kingdom patent law Intellectual property adjudication bodies