Monday, May 13, 2019

Report on 2018 Zurich Conference on Injunctions

For readers who have access to the German publication GRUR Int., the April 2019 issue (pages 352-56) contains a short article (in English) by Vital Lüthi titled Conference Report:  Zurich IP Retreat 2019--Injunctions at a junction?  Mr. Lüthi writes:
This year's topic of the Zurich IP Retreat, held on 2 and 3 November 2018 at Zunfthaus zur Waag, organized by INGRES and ETH Zurich was another fundamental question of intellectual property law:  Is there or should there be room for a balance of interest analysis before the issuance of an injunction, or are injunctions to be granted unless requirements for compulsory licensing are met?  What are the alternatives?
Among the discussants were Professors Stefan Bechtold, Rochelle Dreyfuss, and Christoph Rademacher, along with two (Franz Hofmann, Daniel Alexander) who were involved with the recent Erlangen conference on injunctions and proportionality.  Much of the discussion in Zurich also appears to have overlapped with the discussions in Erlangen and at the recent conference at LMU in Munich, e.g., does the Enforcement Directive require member states to take proportionality into consideration before issuing injunctions, are there other alternatives (such as Aufbrauchfristen, or grace periods) that might serve the same interest without conferring wider discretion on judges, etc.

Wherever the law ultimately comes to rest in Europe, I'm happy to see that these issues are at long last receiving the attention they deserve.  Further, if I get more information on the meeting the German Ministry for Justice and Consumer Protection will be holding on this topic on May 20, I will pass it along.

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