Intellectual property lawyers are warning of a jump in court cases involving patents, trademarks and copyright as the economy worsens.
The number of claims is already on rise, increasing 83 per cent last year, according to the latest judicial statistics, as business owners become more aware of the need to protect their ideas.
Tom Farrand, director of trademarks at IP21, an intellectual property advisory service, said he had seen a sharp increase in inquiries during the past few months from companies looking to protect designs. “During a downturn, companies start looking over their shoulder and enforce their rights against others rather than taking a forward-looking attitude and saying what new products can we launch,” he said.
He added that more companies were now aware of the need to protect their patents and trademarks following the government’s efforts to promote the issue through Business Link and the UK Intellectual Property Office.
He noted that the chancery division of the courts in England and Wales now sets aside two days a month just to hear trademark claims.
There were 422 intellectual property cases in 2007, up from 230 in 2006, according to Judicial Statistics, the official records body.
The biggest increase was in claims over “passing off”, the unauthorised use of a style, look or brand associated with another company, followed by infringement of trademark cases.
Patents and registered design claims rose 95 per cent while copyright and design right cases were up 43 per cent.
Intellectual property is often a company’s biggest single asset, according to Mark Finn, intellectual property specialist at EMW Picton Howell, a law firm. “IP cases tend to feed through to the courts more quickly than other types of claims as companies have to act very quickly in order to stop copied products,” he said.
Rising redundancies are likely to fuel the need for legal protection of intellectual property as people take sensitive information with them when they lose their job, according to Mr Finn.
“We are already seeing a lot of data theft and recovery claims in the recruitment industry, where employees have copied or stolen protected databases of contacts,” he said. “As the economy stalls, and employees move around more, employers are becoming much more aggressive about protecting what is in effect the lifeblood of their business.”
