As county courts don't deal with copyright infringement cases, a report has been published recommending the implementation of a more affordable court system for individuals and small businesses to use.

For sometime now, the County courts have not dealt with copyright cases through their small claims system, deeming them too complicated and referring them to higher courts. Along with the NUJ, the AOP has made a number of submissions to various consultations, asking for an affordable court system for small businesses and individual creators to defend their copyright.

A report has just been published by Lord Justice Jackson, through the Ministry of Justice, on the cost of litigation in the UK courts. During the course of preparing his report, Lord Justice Jackson asked SABIP (Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property) to survey a number of areas. SABIP contacted the AOP (and other trade associations) and their survey was sent to a requested set number of members.  The survey asked for information on how many creators defended copyright infringement cases, the amount of money involved and how they were dealt with.

In his report, Lord Justice Jackson refers to the results of the survey, together with a number of submissions he received, and has concluded that a better, and more affordable, court system is required for copyright creators and small businesses. He recommends that a small claims track for IP claims less than £5000 and a fast track for claims between £5000 and £25,000 be created.

This is great news, whilst we don’t know how, and when, it will be implemented (it may become part of the Patent Court) it will put copyright infringement cases back in the hands of the copyright owner to pursue, without the need for expensive legal help.

Many thanks to those members who completed the survey, as we get more information we’ll keep everyone informed.

The full report can be read here (be warned it’s very long!) http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/about_judiciary/cost-review/reports.htm