Marta Pertegás Sender – författare

The enforcement of patent rights raises complex, and, from a private international law perspective, unique difficulties. Since intellectual property practitioners started to seek the consolidation of cross-border patent disputes, the interplay of private international rules has led to drastic changes in patent litigation across Europe. This book analyses in detail both the European rules on jurisdiction (the Brussels Convention and its successors) and the choice of law rules as they apply to cross-border patent disputes, and will be essential reading for both intellectual property lawyers and international commercial litigation specialists.At the jurisdictional stage, the basic question is whether the current jurisdictional framework provides a basis for the concentration of related litigation. For jurisdictional purposes, patent enforcement is a tort. Accordingly, cross-border patent enforcement attempts may generally be undertaken at the forum of the defendant's domicile, the place of the tort and, as far as provisional measures are concerned, another forum with a sufficient connection to the dispute. On the other hand, the application of the current jurisdictional framework to international patent infringement disputes leads to significant difficulties such as the pre-emptive effect of proceedings pending abroad or the jurisdictional consequences of a patent validity challenge. At the choice of law stage, this book provides a comparative overview of the rather unexplored issues arising in multinational patent enforcement. De lege feranda, it seems that, in view of the territorial nature of patents, a distributive application of the law of the protecting State (lex loci protectionis) appears to be the most consistent choice of law rule.

The Brussels Ibis Regulation is to become by far the most prominent cornerstone of the European law of international civil procedure. Its imminence can be easily ascertained by every practitioner even remotely concerned with cross-border work in Europe. However arcane private international law in general might appear to practitioners – the Brussels I Regulation was a well-known and renowned instrument and the Brussels Ibis Regulation will become so as its proper heir. The so called Brussels system has proven its immeasurable and incomparable value for over forty years. The European Court of Justice and the national courts of the Member States have produced an abundance and a treasure of judgments interpreting the Brussels Convention and the Brussels I Regulation. The effort of completing a truly pan-European commentary mirrors the pan-European nature of its fascinating object. This commentary – which of course covers the jurisprudence of the ECJ in a comprehensive manner – assembles a team of very prominent and renowned authors from total Europe. The authors’ geographical provenience stretches from Denmark in the North to Italy in the South and from Portugal and the United Kingdom in the West to Austria in the East. Now the time is ripe to start such an enterprise.

This commentary is the first full scale article-by-article commentary in English to address the Brussels Ibis Regulation. It is truly European in nature and style. It provides thorough and succinct in-depth analysis of every single Article and offers most valuable guidance for lawyers, judges and academics throughout Europe. It is an indispensable working tool for all practitioners involved in this field of law.