Two-thirds of all patent claims in Europe are now filed in Germany, according to the Munich law firm Meissner Bolte, which does patent litigation. In a sense, Germany has become a destination for fast, effective one-stop patent challenges, much as Britain is for libel and the state of Delaware is for registration of American companies.
Here is more, and for the pointer I thank Alex T.
“much as Britain is for libel”
If I were an Englishman, I wouldn’t be happy that Russian oligarchs were using my courts to silence their Russian critics.
Actually, there is a different and more economically interesting story of why there is patent litigation in Germany that the New York Times article completely missed.
The European Patent Office is located in Munich. The other branch of the EPO is in Berlin and another in the Hague.
It is not surprising, then, that there is a clustering effect of having IP lawyers in these German cities, given that two of the three EPO offices are in Germany. The IP lawyers are there to file patents, and lo and behold, they also litigate them there. Specializiation increases with clustering, more people locate at the office cluster, and soon there is a regional specialty.
I believe Krugman wrote about clustering and geographic specialization, and its always nice to mention Krugman to here to increase the comment count.
The (vague) impression I get talking to various germans is that their own law is stronger on IP than other European countries. If this is true, then it would create a legal culture that is attractive for litigants, even if they are suing under European law.
In fact this might be *why* those instiutions are based in Germany.
Chalk it up to German exceptionalism. Or, at least their belief in it. Surprise: The standard of patentability does not vary across the EU. What varies is their court system, its efficiency, and the types of relief litigants can receive preliminarily before trial. I don’t know if their damage regime is different, ie, giving different multiples for damages, but I doubt it.
Haha, Alex T. Classic!
I may have mentioned before that a Munich firm writes to me occasionally about two patents it thinks I hold, and that I don’t.
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