Enforcement of intellectual property rights and the right to a fair trial
Jonathan Griffiths · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2015
On the face of it, there would appear to be little inherent relationship between due process rights and intellectual property law and no particular reason why intellectual property proceedings should be any more likely to result in a violation of the right to a fair trial than other forms of legal proceedings. Indeed, at first sight, such conflicts seem less likely in this context than in others in which personal liberty and reputation are more obviously at stake. Recently, however, the attention of lobbyists, policy-makers, legislators and courts has turned increasingly to the enforcement of intellectual property claims. In such circumstances, the fair trial rights of defendants may assume greater significance. This chapter considers the potential application of such rights, as they are established in the European Convention on Human Rights and the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Freedoms, in the sphere of intellectual property. It focuses on the rights which are explicitly directed at the trial process; beginning with a discussion of the right to a fair trial, protected under Art 6, ECHR and Art 47 of the EU Charter and moving on to consider the application of the prohibitions on retrospective criminalisation and on disproportionate sanctions within the European legal order (Art 49(1) & (3)).