The Civil Procedure Rules 1998

[F1 Scope of this Part and interpretation E+W

63.1— (1) This Part applies to all intellectual property claims including—

(a) registered intellectual property rights such as—

(i) patents;

(ii) registered designs; and

(iii) registered trade marks; and

(b) unregistered intellectual property rights such as—

(i) copyright;

(ii) design right;

(iii) the right to prevent passing off; and

(iv) the other rights set out in the practice direction.

(2) In this Part—

(a) “the 1977 Act” means the Patents Act 1977;

(b) “the 1988 Act” means the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988;

(c) “the 1994 Act” means the Trade Marks Act 1994;

(d) “the Comptroller” means the Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks;

(e) “patent” means a patent under the 1977 Act and includes any application for a patent or supplementary protection certificate granted under—

(i) the Patents (Supplementary Protection Certificates) Rules 1997;

(ii) the Patents (Supplementary Protection Certificate for Medicinal Products) Regulations 1992; and

(iii) the Patents (Supplementary Protection Certificate for Plant Protection Products) Regulations 1996;

(f) “Patents Court” means the Patents Court of the High Court constituted as part of the Chancery Division by section 6(1) of the Supreme Court Act 1981;

(g) “Patents County Court” means a county court designated as a Patents County Court under section 287(1) of the 1988 Act;

[F2 (gg) “patents judge” means a person nominated under section 291(1) of the 1988 Act as the patents judge of a patents county court;]

(h) “the register” means whichever of the following registers is appropriate—

(i) patents maintained by the Comptroller under section 32 of the 1977 Act;

(ii) designs maintained by the registrar under section 17 of the Registered Designs Act 1949;

(iii) trade marks maintained by the registrar under section 63 of the 1994 Act;

(iv) Community trade marks maintained by the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market under Article 83 of Council Regulation (EC) 40/94; and

(v) Community designs maintained by the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market under Article 72 of Council Regulation (EC) 6/2002; and

(i) “the registrar” means—

(i) the registrar of trade marks; or

(ii) the registrar of registered designs,

whichever is appropriate.

[F3 (3) Claims to which this Part applies are allocated to the multi-track.]]

Textual Amendments

F1 Pt. 63 inserted (1.4.2003) by The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2002 (S.I. 2002/3219), rule 1, Sch.

F2 Rule 63.1(2)(gg) inserted (1.10.2005) by The Civil Procedure (Amendment No.3) Rules 2005 (S.I. 2005/2292), rules 1(c), 46

F3 Rule 63.1(3) inserted (6.4.2006) by The Civil Procedure (Amendment No.4) Rules 2005 (S.I. 2005/3515), rules 1, 18(a)