Europe’s trademark litigation hotspots revealed

Where were the most trademark litigations filed in Europe over the last five years? Where are cases growing, and where are they declining? Which are the top 10 courts?

Managing IP has dug into trademark litigation filings in the UK, Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands from 2015 to 2019 and answered these questions and more.

Using statistics from the Darts-IP database, we have provided a breakdown of five-year trends in each country, with insight from sources on the ground. You can read the full report here (note: you will need a subscription or to take a free trial).

We can reveal that nearly 7,000 disputes were filed from 2015 to 2019, with the UK and Germany leading the pack in the number of cases.

However, there have also been some notable declines. In France, for example, trademark litigation cases have dropped by 64% since 2015.

In fact, Italy was the only country of the five that saw an increase in cases – albeit a small rise of 4%.

Sources suggested that national and EU court decisions might have influenced litigation strategies, as have general perceptions of some countries’ judicial systems.  

We chose not to analyse case filings from 2020 (which are not available in full) because we believed they were likely to muddy the waters. Although many courts handled virtual litigation last year (and still are), there was significant disruption to court cases – and to enforcement too. We will report on the data when it becomes available.

With thanks to Darts-IP, which is part of Clarivate, for supplying the data. And again, the full report is here. 

We will be publishing more data from Darts-IP in due course. The next instalment will focus on patent litigation hotspots across Europe.