Intellectual Property
Companies are acting quicker and with greater regularity to protect their intellectual property rights.
According to judicial statistics, intellectual property claims made in the High Court have risen by 83% in the past year.
Passing off and trademark infringement claims have seen the biggest rise, leaping 136%, from 50 to 118 cases between 2006 and 2007.
Notably, claims involving confidential information jumped to 21 in 2007 from just three in 2006.
Mark Finn, intellectual property specialist at EMW Picton Howell, says that companies are becoming increasingly aware of the value of their products.
“Often the intellectual property will be the biggest single asset a company has. As businesses try to protect their profit margins and maintain market share as the economy slows, they try to be more prepared than in the good times to fight to defend their brands and other intellectual property rights against competitors,” he says.
Finn says that IP cases tend to feed through to the courts more quickly than other types of claims as companies have to act quickly to stop copied products being sold or proprietary information from being
