CJEU figures; patent box; USPTO Denver; foreign IP and India forum

The number of new cases brought before the Court of Justice of the EU fell last year from 688 to 632, while the number of cases brought before the General Court also fell from 722 to 617. The Court said that the average duration of proceedings in references for a preliminary ruling fell to 15.7 months while the duration of proceedings at the General Court (which handles appeals from OHIM) fell 1.9 months to 24.8 months. The trend is positive, though it’s slightly concerning that the number of cases completed by both courts actually fell last year.

The UK’s patent box comes into effect next month. Based on one patent attorney’s experience, the Independent newspaper says that UK patent applications are already up 10% to 20%, many of them from new applicants. But the UK IPO told us it doesn’t keep figures on why people file patents, and couldn’t verify this figure. If you are considering taking advantage of the patent box, our sister publication TP Week has a useful article: How to calculate the UK patent box (subscription required).

Let’s hope the paperwork is processed faster than this: the Denver Post reports that the opening of the new temporary site for the new USPTO office in Colorado could be delayed. The building, in Lakewood, now looks more likely to be open in 2014 than on the original schedule of October or November this year. About 20 judges and 100 patent examiners are expected to work at the office, but none of the examiners have been hired yet.

Are policy makers’ boasts that IP reforms boost domestic industry mis-placed? The IP Finance blog discusses a recent paper by Jonathan Band and Jonathan Gerafi for infojustice.org, entitled “Foreign Ownership of Firms in IP-Intensive Industries”. The paper finds that, contrary to oft-stated opinion, many if not most firms in IP-intensive industries in the US are foreign-owned. The paper considers industries such as publishing, recorded music, movies and games as well as the nationality of patent applicants. It’s eye-opening research, though the figures cited may not paint the whole picture: for example, is the location where a movie is shot, or how many awards it wins, a better indicator of its nationality than where the money comes from or who the stars and producers are?

Managing IP’s latest event, the India IP and Innovation Forum, started in Delhi today. Full reports from our Asia reporter Peter Leung will be posted online in due course. In the meantime, you can see brief updates and view photos from the event on twitter: the hashtag to search for is #mipindiaforum.

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