INVENTORS need a place where they can fight patent actions without
gigantic delays and huge costs. In Britain, the Patents County Court was created
to make patent litigation quicker, easier and cheaper. But it has failed on one
of its first big tests.
The case brought by Andreas Pavel against Sony and Toshiba over his patent on
the 鈥淲alkman鈥� personal stereo (see p 22) has ended up costing over 拢2
million. The case went on to an appeal where the delay and expense were rightly
criticised. Although the Patents County Court was established to save costs,
Lord Justice Neil said bluntly, 鈥渋t is plain beyond argument that savings in
time and expense have not been achieved鈥�.
The court must be made to work efficiently. Although the Japanese giants can
afford to write off legal expenses, a small company could have been bankrupted
by a similar 鈥渧ictory鈥�.
Advertisement