Intellectual Property puts art.6(1) Brussels I Regulation to the Test

摘要

The contrast between national intellectual property rights, which are still granted on the basis of the territoriality principle, and which, as a consequence, logically produce on the one hand parallel rights in several countries and on the other hand the international exploitation of such rights, results in a scenario where similar violations, mostly performed by defendants with a mutual relationship between them, give rise to claims based on similar national provisions on intellectual property. Article 2 of the Brussels I Regulation allows for the separate prosecution of every defendant in the country where he or she resides. Although art.5(3) provides for an alternative solution, the standard scenario involves a multitude of claims submitted country by country, apparently as a logical consequence of the territoriality principle.