I N T E L S - L I T H U A N I A

Court procedure

The competence of courts is much broader than that of the SPB Appeal Board, the following are subject exclusively to court consideration:

invalidation of patents;
cancellation of trademark and industrial design registrations (after issuance of the Registration certificate);
unfair competition;
infringement of IP rights;
recognition of well-known marks;
copyright and related rights;
appeals against the decisions of the SPB Appeal Board;
Etc.

In Lithuania there are no special courts for consideration of IP-related cases and these are considered by the common law court.

The first instance court is the Vilnius District Court. Its decisions may be appealed before the appellate board of the same court; the final resort is the Supreme Court.

Though there is no official statistics on IP related court cases, definitely, their number is much less than that of oppositions considered by the SPB Appeal Board. However holders of IP rights apply to the court more and more often. To some extent the increase of disputes brought before the court is explained by a considerable improvement of the national legislation, which has created more favourable conditions for IP protection.

Among such changes we would like to mention the Law On The Protection Of Intellectual Property In The Field Of Import And Export Of Goods that is quite a new law in Lithuania. It provides specific measures including detention of goods infringing the rights of IP holders. This law will definitely have its effect on the Lithuanian court practice.

INTELS-LITHUANIA