50% of PI-requests on patents are granted in Austria

Judges from Germany, France, the UK, the U.S. and Austria discussed the exact requirements that need to be met for a preliminary injunction at the Munich International Patent Law Conference 2017.

An array of disagreement became evident not only between the various countries but even between the German courts in Munich and in Düsseldorf. A panel of six judges showed how different courts would decide about the two very same sample cases.

The result are quite significant differences in statistics: While French judge Marie-Christine Courboulay, the Vice-President of the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris had to report that no provisional injunction in France was granted recently, the Presiding Judge of the Higher Regional Court of Vienna, Judge Hinger could inform that 50% of the PI-requests which were decided by his court in the past 3,5 years were successful, with no need for urgency, for weighing of interest or for particular prerequisites for demonstrating the patents’ validity. An impressive demonstration of the attractiveness of Austrian patent litigation (see here).

Another highlight of the conference was the presentation of Judge Klaus Grabinski of the German Federal Court of Justice who talked about the particularities of preliminary injunctive relief against patent infringements before the UPC.