Does the UK Need a Distinct Doctrine of Abuse of Right?: CIPIL Spring Conference 2026

Speaker: Trevor Cook (Bird and Bird)

Full title: 'Does the UK Need a Distinct Doctrine of Abuse of Right? – Lessons from the Civil Law'

Session 3: Comparative Experience and Potential Reform

On Saturday 21 March 2026, the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law (CIPIL) held its Annual Spring Conference entitled 'Abuse of Intellectual Property Rights'

In Crypto Open Patent Alliance v Wright [2024] EWHC 1809 (Ch), [63], Mellor J. observed

“IP rights, being monopolies of various sorts, are … justified in that their net benefit is in the public interest, with a view to fostering creativity and innovation. By corollary, where IP rights are abused to stifle creativity and innovation, the legal system ought to have the means to respond effectively.”

The statement raises three questions which are the subject of this conference: (i) when are IP rights to be regarded as “abused”? (ii) What mechanisms exist to respond to such abuses? And (iii) Does the legal system have sufficient mechanisms by which to “respond effectively”?

Programme:

Abuses (This session not recorded)

- Abuses of Trade Marks – Stuart Baran (3 New Square)

- Abuses of Designs – David Stone (White & Case)

- Abuse in FRAND Patent Litigation – Daniel Alexander KC (8 New Square)

Current Disinventives and Remedies

- Remedies for Abuses: Actions for Threats – Trevor Cook (Bird and Bird)

- Preventing Misuse of interim injunctions: The Cross-Undertaking - Dr Katarina Foss-Solbrekk (University of Copenhagen)

- Remedies for Abuses: The Role and Limits of Competition Law to Prevent Enforcement of Invalid IPRs– Dr Quentin Schaefer (11 South Square)

- Preventing Abuses: Ethical Obligations of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys – Phil Barnes (BarnesIP)

Comparative Experience and Potential Reform

- Does the UK Need a Distinct Doctrine of Abuse of Right? – Lessons from the Civil Law – Dr Amandine Leonard (University of Edinburgh)

- Abuse of IP Rights. Lessons from the United States? Professor Leah Grinwald (Dean and Richard J. Morgan Professor of Law, University of Nevada)

For more information see:

https://www.cipil.law.cam.ac.uk/seminars-and-events/cipil-spring-conference