Scope Of New Specialised Courts Widened

Managing Intellectual Property, February 2011

In 2008, the Federal Court for Tax and Administrative Affairs (FCTAA) created a Specialized IP Court to decide all the cases related to IP rights, which started work in January 2009.

But whenever cases referred to arguments based on International IP Treaties, such as the Paris Convention or TRIPS, the files were sent to the High Bench of the FCTAA, as this Bench had exclusive jurisdiction in this regard.

This generated two separate problems: the magistrates of the High Bench mostly specialized in tax issues and decisions were delayed for months, due to the Bench's backlog.

As a result the internal law of the FCTAA was amended last month, empowering Specialized Courts to decide cases based on International Treaties.