The findings from a recent U.K. Patents Court judgement have clarified the extent of litigation sanctions imposed when there is a failure to record a patent transaction at the Patent Office. The U.K. patents system may deprive a successful plaintiff of its entitlement to recover its full legal costs in these circumstances. This case will also affect trade marks and registered designs, as these statutes have identical provisions. This decision will impact potential litigants and future commercial transactions; they must make sure they register an interest, and make sure their due diligence in corporate and commercial transactions consider this potential situation. The article by Jonathan Radcliffe, published by Bloomberg, examines this little-known trap for the unwary on the UK’s approach to the consequences flowing from a failure to record such a transaction.
The U.K. patents system penalizes a failure to record a patent transaction at the Patent Office by depriving a successful plaintiff of its entitlement to recover its full legal costs in any subsequent infringement litigation on that patent.
The extent of the litigation sanctions that can be imposed in such circumstances has now been clarified. The U.K. Patents Court’s recent judgment in L’Ore´al v. RN Ventures [2018] EWHC 391, gives guidance both to litigants and to parties to a corporate transaction on the consequences of failing to register a transaction
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