HUNGARY Law and Practice Contributed by: Árpád Pethő, Levente Pethő, Eszter Szakács and József Tálas, Danubia Patent & Law Office
tactics make a further hearing necessary), the court may order the party to bear these costs regardless of the winning ratio. The legal costs awarded by the court are to be paid once the decision becomes final and bind- ing. 9. Alternative Dispute Resolution 9.1 Type of Actions for Intellectual Property There is no specific regulation regarding arbitra- tion on the actions of IP rights in Hungary. However, according to Article 44 of the Hungar- ian Patent Act, the HIPO shall have exclusive competence in procedures for the revocation (invalidation) of patents (at first instance). There- fore, a decision on the validity of a Hungarian patent will not be recognised by the HIPO or Hungarian courts and, as a result, cannot have effect on a patent’s validity (either national or validated European patent) as registered by the HIPO. No legal regulation prohibits the use of ADR in patent infringement situations, though there have been no such situations that would have been settled by arbitration (as far as is known). 10. Assignment and Licensing 10.1 Requirements or Restrictions for Assignment of Intellectual Property Rights An IP right can be assigned in Hungary, and the- oretically in most cases no written agreement is required. However, written form is required in the
case of assignment from an employee to their employer. In the case of registered IP rights (eg, patents, utility models) in order for the new right-holder to be able to act against third parties the assign- ment must be registered with the HIPO, enclos- ing at least a short assignment form. There is no need to submit the detailed IP transfer agree- ment. Service inventions made under employ- ment are automatically assigned to the employer on disclosure, on the condition that the employer accepts said inventions in writing within 90 days of the disclosure. 10.2 Procedure for Assigning an Intellectual Property Right It is recommended that the assignment be regis- tered by the HIPO, preferably using a simplified assignment form. However, there is no restriction on the content of the assignment agreement for this purpose, provided that it clearly contains the necessary identification data of the IP right, the assignor, the assignee and the fact of assign- ment. 10.3 Requirements or Restrictions to License an Intellectual Property Right The licensing provisions are included in the Pat- ent Act and apply to all other kinds of IP rights. An IP right can be licensed in Hungary without any formal requirement, although it is recom- mended to be in writing. All kinds of IPs (ie, industrial properties), includ- ing their applications, copyrights and trade secrets (know-how), and their combination, can be licensed. The licence can be non-exclusive or exclusive, with the opportunity to grant the right to sub-license. However, according to the gen- eral rules of the Patent Act the licence is treated as non-exclusive with no right to sub-license;
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