Symposium: “International Litigation In Intellectual Property And Information Technology”

The symposium is organized by the Unité de droit international privé of the ULB (Université Libre de Bruxelles) in the framework of the project on Judicial Cooperation in Matters of Intellectual Property and Information Technology, co-financed by the European Commission, and will take place in Brussels on Friday, March 2nd 2007.

It is a follow-up to an earlier roundtable, held in Heidelberg in late 2006 (a background paper prepared for the Heidelberg meeting can be found here; other interesting preliminary documents dealing with specific topics are available here). As stated on the symposium programme, a number of key issues related to cross-border IP litigation will be addressed, in the light of recent case-law of the European Court of Justice (GAT and Roche judgments, on which a number of recent posts can be found on our website) and legislative proposals (Rome II Regulation):

How should the applicable procedural framework be organized to guarantee at the same time an effective protection of intellectual property rights and legal certainty? Which court has jurisdiction to entertain actions relating to foreign rights and/or relating to infringements perpetrated trough the internet? Is it still possible to consolidate proceedings relating to parallel IP rights after the decisions of the European Court of Justice in the GAT and Roche cases? What are the means to collect evidence located abroad in cross-border IP cases? What is the role and scope of preliminary and protective measures in IP international litigation?

For the full programme, the complete list of speakers and further information (including registration, free for students), see the project website and the downloadable leaflet.