Unjustified threats on intellectual property rights

UK law provides a statutory right of redress against unjustified (or groundless) threats to sue for infringement of a patent, trade mark or design right (the threats provisions).

The threats provisions have been criticised for not working as well as they should. They are thought to be unclear and have been accused of failing to achieve the necessary balance, which is to allow rights holders to protect highly valuable assets, but not to misuse threats of infringement to distort competition.

So, in 2012, the government asked the Law Commission to review the relevant law. Following a consultation in 2013, PDF 442KB and a response report in 2014, PDF 922KB , the Law Commission has now presented a final report and published a Draft Bill.

The government has been supportive of the Law Commission work to date and is currently considering the Law Commission’s Report and the draft Bill that accompanied it. As part of this, the government is keen to confirm stakeholder views