Jurisdiction and Applicable Law in Matters of Intellectual Property

Abstract

The Hague Judgments Project, initiated in the early 1990 sat the Hague Conference on Private International Law, aimed to harmonize rules on international jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. As this project faltered, supporters continued this work under an American Law Institute Project that developed comprehensive rules on international jurisdiction, particularly in cross-border intellectual property (IP) disputes. Other initiatives in Europe and Asia worked to harmonize the settlement of multi-state IP disputes. This report synthesizes reports from 21 countries to look at international jurisdiction, choice of law issues, and recognition and enforcement of judgments in IP matters. It also presents 12 hypothetical cases to determine how a given jurisdiction deals with various matters, including: personal jurisdiction and jurisdiction over infringement actions, subject-matter jurisdiction, consolidation of proceedings, choice of court agreements, Parallel proceedings, territoriality principle of IP rights, and applicable law regarding transfer of IP rights and agreements.