May 23, 2007

Some arresting numbers from the Times (UK):

Why does it cost so much to go to court? In a judgment in April last year, Lord Justice Longmore said: “It is a well-known and rather disturbing fact that it costs far more to resolve intellectual property disputes in England than in other parts of the EEA [European Economic Area].”

Recently, the European Patent Office gathered information on the relative costs of litigation across Europe. It disclosed that to litigate a small to medium-sized patent case in England costs between three and ten times as much as the same case in Germany or the Netherlands.

Sir Hugh Laddie attributes the gap to the English system's attachment to "lengthy cross-examination and oral argument and, above all else, disclosure of documents". Alas, no comparison is included of the costs of litigating similar controversies in the U.S.