New small claims service

A new small claims service is to be introduced at the Patents County Court, helping small and medium sized businesses protect their copyright, patents, trademarks and designs. It will limit fixed costs and allow damages of up to £5,000 per case. According to the Intellectual Property Office, about 150 firms will benefit from the service every year. Evidence presented to the Hargreaves Review of intellectual property, published in May indicated that about one in six small- and medium-sized businesses had given up attempting to enforce their rights because of the high cost of Court proceedings. Changes to the legal system for IP cases since June 2010 have included new limits on costs (£50,000) and damages (£500,000) in the Patents County Court following the Jackson review of Civil Litigation Costs Although recent reforms have improved the cost of taking smaller IP cases to court, a business with a legal case worth less than £5,000 could still face costs of up to £50,000 to get a judgement against an infringer.