Extra Territorial Intellectual Property Dispute Within the EC

In the framework of a less "communal" view of intellectual property which is evolving in various countries of the European Union, two Dutch courts have recently affirmed their power to issue injunctions in patent cases with international effects.

One week after the Court of Appeal of the Hague had found that there was no "evident error" in the previous decision of the District Court by which the latter declared itself competent in a case regarding foreign defendants having allegedly breached foreign patents, the District Court of the Hague again asserted its power to issue extra-territorial injunctions. With regard to the first of these cases, Murex/Chiron (Court of Appeal of the Hague, 07/12/95), the President of District Court, in May 1995, granted an injunction to three companies of the foreign group Murex - codefendants of Dutch Murex - to refrain from further breaches of Chirons Hepatitis-C patent in Italy, France and Spain. The decision was appealed and an application was