CLIP Comments on the European Commission's Proposal for a Regulation on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations ("Rome I") of December 15, 2005 and the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs' Draft Report on the Proposal of August 22, 2006.

The European Max-Planck Group for Conflict of Laws in Intellectual Property (CLIP) analyses in these comments the effects on intellectual property contracts of the proposed Rome I regulation on the law applicable to contractual obligations. CLIP argues that the European legislator should not introduce a rule on the law applicable tot contracts relating to intellectual property rights in Art. 4 of the future Rome I-Regulation, or introduce at least a more flexible one.

19.04.2007

CLIP Suggestions for amendment of the Brussels I regulation with respect to Exclusive jurisdiction and cross border intellectual property (patent) infringement.

In consequence of ECJ judgments C-4/03 - GAT v. LuK and C-539/03 - Roche Nederland v. Primus, handed down on 13 July 2005, it appears no longer feasible for a national court to allow for consolidation of claims against a person infringing parallel intellectual property rights registered in different Member States, and/or to accept a joinder of claims against multiple defendants engaged in concerted actions. It is feared that this will entail considerable impediments for an efficient enforcement of intellectual property rights, in particular of patents. In these comments, the European Max-Planck Group for Conflict of Laws in Intellectual Property (CLIP) suggests the adverse affects of the ECJ's rulings should be cured. This can be done by revising the drafting of article 22(4) and article 6 of the Brussels Regulation on Jurisdiction and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (44/2001).

19.04.2007

Published 10.05.2005

Published 27.11.2002

This report is the result of a short-term study commissioned by the European Parliament on the desirability of EC level legislation in the area of software patents. It is based on a comparative analysis of the present state of the law, and the advantages and disadvantages appearing from current practice in the EC Member States, the United States and Japan. While its principal focus is on software patents, the report also includes commentary on the patenting of "business methods", as patents in this area are closely related to software patents.

Published 25.07.2002

The study offers an analysis of the use of conditional access systems for other reasons than the protection of remuneration interests. The report also examines the need to provide for additional legal protection by means of a Community initiative, such as a possible extension of the Conditional Access Directive. The report will give a legal and economic analysis of the most important non-remuneration reasons to use conditional access (CA), examine whether services based on conditional access for these reasons are endangered by piracy activities, to what extent existing legislation in the Member States provides for sufficient protection, and what the possible impact of the use of conditional access is on the Internal Market. Furthermore, the study analysis the specific legislation outside the European Union, notably in Australia, Canada, Japan and the US, as well as the relevant international rules at the level of the EC, WIPO and the Council of Europe.

Published 06.08.2001

Herman Cohen Jehoram, ‘Cumulation of Protection in the EC Design Proposals’.

Published 31.03.1998

Willy Alexander, ‘Intellectual Property and the Free Movement of Goods. The 1996 case-law of the Court of Justice’, IIC (1998).

Published 10.03.1998

Herman Cohen Jehoram, ‘International exhaustion versus importation right: a murky area of intellectual property law’, GRUR International 1996-4, p. 280-284.

Article on the so-called principle of  (national / international / Community) exhaustion of intellectual property rights.

Published 31.03.1998

Updated 20.04.2007