Lord Esher MR discussed the costs of patent infringement litigation: ‘Well, then, the moment there is a patent case one can see it before the case is opened, or called in the list. How can we see it? We can see it by a pile of books as high as this [holding up the papers] invariably, one set for each Counsel, one set for each Judge, of course, and by the voluminous shorthand notes: we know ‘Here is a patent case.’ A man had better have his patent infringed, or have anything happen to him in this world, short of losing all his family by influenza, than have a dispute about a patent. His patent is swallowed up, and he is ruined. Whose fault is it? It is really not the fault of the law: it is the fault of the mode of conducting the law in a patent case. That is what causes all this mischief.’
Lord Esher MR
(1892) 9 RPC 117
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Baird v Moule’s Patent Earth Closet Co Ltd CA 3-Feb-1876
Where a patentee sues for infringement and then discontinues his claim against the alleged infringer and consents to the revocation of his patent, he may yet require the alleged infringer to pay a substantial proportion of his costs if he can show . .
Cited by:
Cited – Nichia Corp v Argos Ltd CA 19-Jul-2007
. .
Cited – Fresenius Kabi Deutschland Gmbh and Others v Carefusion 303 Inc CA 8-Nov-2011
The parties had litigated the validity of a patent. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 12 September 2021; Ref: scu.258324
