Workpackage 3

Adjudication, Justice and Enforcement

Objectives:

The IP system, as a system of assignment of rights for incentivising creativity and innovation, is being increasingly criticised and perceived by the large parts of society as unjust. While the substantive rules, as such, might not come in conflict with the moral and ethical considerations about what is fair and justifiable, the exercise and enforcement of IP rights frequently do. This work package aims at drawing policy-oriented proposals for improving effectiveness of IP rules and decreasing costs for their enforcement (inside and outside the EU) though enhancing their societal acceptance. Another objective of this work package is reinforcement of Europe’s hospitable environment for innovative industries, though improvement of procedural rules of the newly created specialised judicial system for innovation in the EU.

Description of Work and Role of Specific Beneficiaries and Partner Organisations:

This work package will explore cross-cutting issues between ethical considerations and enforcement of IP rights throughout the life-cycle of intellectual property intensive goods and services. ESR 9 and 10 will first deal with the overarching question of conflicts between the exercise of IP rights and ethical norms in the society, expressed as human rights. While ESR 9 (Beneficiaries CEIPI and QMUL, partner organisation ICTSD) aims at arriving at legal mechanisms that can be used for balancing involved interests in general, ESR 10 (Beneficiaries UA and CEIPI, partner organisations OHIM and ICTSD) analyses specifically the efforts for balancing the exercise of rights in the EU and its impact on enforcement of IP rights in third countries. Research of ESR 8 (Beneficiaries UM and MIPLC, partner organisations EFPIA and Hovione) and ESR 11 (Beneficiaries MIPLC and UA, partner organisation EPI) will be concentrated on the functioning of the system for delivery of justice, in particular the rules of the Unified Patent Court and for the invalidation of.