The role of the Court experts in patent litigation in Italy and before UPC

This is not a judgment issued in an IP case, but it has important consequences for IP litigation in Italy. This judgment concerns the powers of court experts appointed in civil cases. Such court experts are frequently appointed in IP cases in order to assess validity and/or infringement of an IP right (in case of patents), its existence and/or misappropriation (in case of trade secrets) as well as in order to calculate damages suffered due to the alleged infringement. The Italian judge will usually base the decision of the IP case on the evaluation of the facts object of the case made by the court expert. The Supreme Court’s decision at issue confirms that the investigative powers the appointed court experts enjoy, especially with reference to the accounting analysis, are very broad, which is interesting for IPRs holders.

Full article available in the attached file.

This material was first published by Thomson Reuters, trading as Sweet & Maxwell, 5 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5AQ, in European Intellectual Property Review as “Italian Supreme Court: importance of the Court expert in litigation” and is reproduced by agreement with the publishers.