In May 2015, the IPO and CIFA organised a consultation on Court Fees. See our post here. In July, the UPC Blog participated to the webinar organised by both organisations and summarised for you the Background of the consultation, The Issues at stake in the consultation document and the Discussion that followed between the participants. These can be found here.
Finally, in its October Newsletter (See below), the EPLAW reveals that 146 responses were received, 68 from the Italian Chambers of Commerce, and identified the main issues raised by the participants:
- greater clarity is required where multiple parties / patents are involved
- the guidelines for the calculation of value-based fees should be published for comment
- no value-based fee should be payable for a counterclaim for revocation the opt-out fees should be lower than 80 Euros
- there is divided opinion on the desirability of alternative one as compared to alternative two to aid SMEs
- the caps on recoverable costs are too high at the lower values of cases.
- there should be a value-based fee for an application for a preliminary injunction
These responses were presented to the Preparatory Committee on 19th October who will present a final draft of Court Fees in February 2016 after negotiating with Member States.