Private international law principles for ubiquitous intellectual property infringement–a solution in search of a problem?

Abstract

An empirical study of 56 cases from 19 jurisdictions dealing with a paradigmatic instance of ubiquitous infringement–cross-border online infringement of intellectual property rights (IPRs)–shows that the typical case will: involve a local plaintiff suing a foreign defendant for a foreign action causing local damage to a local IPR (being either a trademark or a copyright); neither challenge the validity of the IPR nor involve parallel proceedings elsewhere; seek the remedies of injunction and damages, to be enforced locally; resolve the issue of jurisdiction by determining whether local consumers have been targeted (in trademark cases) or can access the material (in copyright cases); and appl..