Exclusive Jurisdiction in Intellectual Property

Benedetta Ubertazzi argues that exclusive jurisdiction rules related to intellectual property rights cases are not only insufficiently supported by any of the arguments usually invoked in their favor, but are also in fact contrary to public international law rules concerning the avoidance of a denial of justice and the fundamental human right of access to a court. They should therefore be abandoned with respect to infringement and validity claims involving either registered or unregistered intellectual property rights. The author claims that this abandonment would be consistent with the clear trend already existing in this respect and would prevent economic inequalities in cross-border intellectual property litigation, without however leading to abusive forum shopping.

Born 1975; Full-Tenured Researcher of International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Macerata, Italy; Fellow, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers, Germany, Host Institute Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law, Munich, Germany.