Patent Litigation Insurance
Cross-country analyses show that small and medium sized companies (SMEs) do not patent their inventions to the same extent as large firms. Surveys among SMEs indicate that this is partly due to the fear of high expenses in the enforcement of patent rights through litigation. This suggests that the high patent litigation costs to an inexpedient degree restrain the SMEs from protecting their inventions through patents. Ultimately, we risk that high litigation costs hamper innovation by SMEs.
For these reasons The Danish Patent and Trademark Office has for some years strongly urged the private insurance providers to offer patent insurances to the Danish market. In december 2007 the first insurance provider took up this challenge and began to offer a generic patent insurance product to the Danish companies. Until then, it had only been possible for the Danish companies to buy tailor-made patent insurance products and such insurance products have usually been so expensive that only large companies could afford to take out such insurances.
The first generic patent insurance product is offered via Lloyd's in London and is mainly targeted at SMEs. The insurance product offers some choises in regard to eg the financial and the geographical coverage so SMEs adapt the patent insurance to their needs.
The Danish Patent and Trademark Office hopes that more insurance companies will begin to offer patent insurance products and that this type of insurance will be widely distributed on an European scale. On a European level it would be preferable if the insurance type would be broadened to cover all types of intellectual property rights.
The Europaen Commission has established an expert working group who are looking at "Best Practice on Enforcement of IPR". The sub-group for "Funding and Evaluation" is working on strengthening the European industry's possibilities of obtaining patent insurances in Europe and of obtaining insurances covering all types of intellectual property rights. Niels Holm Svendsen from the Danish Patent and Trademark Office has been appointed as rapporteur for this sub-group.
Questions
If you have questions about patent insurance you are welcome to contact Anne Rejnhold Jorgensen or Barbara Suhr-Jessen. If you have questions relating specificly to the work of the expert group looking at "Best Practice on Enforcement of IPR", you are welcome to contact Niels Holm Svendsen.
Last update: 01 August 2008
Contact us
Do you wish to receive more information about our work? Fill out the form and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
For more general questions you can also get in touch with us on +45 43 50 83 01 or via mail on pvs@dkpto.dk
