Reform of UK design litigation

The very wonderful Ipkat has a link to the User Group proposals to reform the Patents County Court, for lower costs and higher speed.
The PCC was set up for precisely this, but an unintended consequence of the Woolf Reforms was to turn it into a High Court clone, with little scope for cheaper procedures better suited to SMEs or litigants in person.
Since the appointment of Judge Fysh, author of the 5th Edition of Russell Clarke on designs and one of our great design jurists, there has been a policy of routing design cases to the PCC, and when Section 27A of the Registered Designs Act comes in, he will also get all appeals from the Registry (which currently go to the Registered Designs Appeal Tribunal). We will then have a unified design court for England and Wales under Judge Fysh.
Sounds great - except that, as CIPA said back in 2005 when the idea was floated, the costs regime would go from nominal costs on a scale as in the Intellectual Property Office and on Trade Mark appeals to the Appointed Person, to the much higher spending, higher risk High Court system of costs, vastly increasing the downside risk of litigation.
Well, I am delighted to say that the proposals involve going to the scale fee system, not just for design appeals as CIPA suggested but for everything. I think that will really make a difference - UK justice will become affordable to SMEs again.

If you agree, please send your comments to:

Philip Westmacott,
Bristows
100 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DH
or by email to:
philip.westmacott@bristows.com