Cost Increase in IP Court

The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) is a specialist court for intellectual property disputes aimed at SME businesses and McDaniels Law has historically been one of the biggest users of the Court on behalf of our clients. The process for IPEC is relatively streamlined and one of its big benefits is that it has cost capping provisions which limits the amount of legal costs a successful party can recover from the other side. The benefit of this is that it provides certainty for all parties of what they can expect to recover, or what they can be liable for at the conclusion of a matter.

The overall cap for a liability trial is currently £50,000 and £25,000 for a damages inquiry trial and this has not changed since 2010. In addition to the overall cap the different stages of litigation also have a cap on the amount of money that can be recovered for that stage, and those stage caps have not been increased since 2013. The Civil Procedure Rules Committee which sets the rules for the Court has now confirmed that these limits are to be increased from October 2022. The overall cap on liability costs is to rise to £60,000 and the cap on the costs of the damages is to increase to £30,000. The individual stage caps are also to increase but it has not yet been confirmed how much the individual stage cost caps will increase.

The increase in the overall caps is not particularly large, especially given it has been twelve years since the last increase but should nonetheless be welcome news for businesses looking to enforce their rights as it increases the liabilities that infringers face and so will hopefully encourage parties to make a more commercial approach to litigation and settlement.

If you have any questions on the above, please do not hesitate to contact the team at McDaniels Law on 0191 291 4000 or legal@mcdanielslaw.com.