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In European law, and especially in European
intellectual propertyIntellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
law, a
cross-border injunction is an
injunctionAn injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
by a
courtA court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...
in one European country, such as a court in the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
forbidding infringement in several other
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an countries.
For a period in the late-1990s, national courts issued cross-border injunctions covering all EP jurisdictions, but this has been limited by the
European Court of JusticeThe Court can sit in plenary session, as a Grand Chamber of 13 judges, or in chambers of three or five judges. Plenary sitting are now very rare, and the court mostly sits in chambers of three or five judges...
. In two cases in July 2006, interpreting Articles 6.1 and 16.4 of the
Brussels ConventionThe Brussels Regime is a set of rules regulating which courts have jurisdiction in legal disputes of a civil or commercial nature between individuals resident in different member states of the European Union and the European Free Trade Association...
, the European Court of Justice held that European patents are national rights that must be enforced nationally, that it was "unavoidable" that infringements of the same European patent have to be litigated in each relevant national court, even if the lawsuit is against the same group of companies, and that cross-border injunctions are not available.
See also
- Brussels Regime
The Brussels Regime is a set of rules regulating which courts have jurisdiction in legal disputes of a civil or commercial nature between individuals resident in different member states of the European Union and the European Free Trade Association...
- Enforcement of European patents
European patents are granted by the European Patent Office under the legal provisions of the European Patent Convention . However, European patents are enforced at a national level, i.e. on a per-country basis...
- Lis alibi pendens
The principle of lis alibi pendens applies both in municipal law, public international law, and private international law to address the problem of potentially contradictory judgments. If two courts were to hear the same dispute, it is possible they would reach inconsistent decisions. To avoid...
- Spider in the web doctrine
The spider in the web doctrine is a legal doctrine in Dutch law governing cross-border injunctions in patent infringement cases. Under this doctrine, the Dutch courts would assume jurisdiction only in cases where the main defendant was located in the Netherlands and where the other defendants...