ISRAEL Law and Practice Contributed by: Eran Bareket, Reinhold Cohn Group
Supreme Court. Patent infringement cases are heard exclusively before district courts at first instance. Each of the six district courts has local jurisdic- tion within its district. Local jurisdiction among the six district courts is determined based on the general principles of the choice of venue appli- cable to all civil litigation; of particular relevance to IP cases are the rules based on the defend- ant’s residence or place of business or the place of the infringing activity. A claim against a foreign entity that has no place of business in Israel may be brought before the District Court of Jerusalem, which has residual authority. A leave of court is required in order to affect service out of the jurisdiction. If the defendant is unable to challenge the leave, the court will deem itself to have acquired international juris- diction over the defendant. Judgments handed down by district courts may be appealed to the Supreme Court with- out requiring leave. Other decisions, such as decisions in interim relief proceedings, may be appealed only with leave. 2.4 Specialised Bodies/Organisations for the Resolution of Disputes The Committee for Compensation and Royalties is a specialised body for resolving intellectual property disputes concerning employees’ enti- tlement to remuneration for service inventions. 2.5 Prerequisites to Filing a Lawsuit Only persons or entities recorded as patentees, or as exclusive licensees, may file an infringe- ment lawsuit. All co-patentees (and the exclusive licensee, if they exist) must be joined as parties
to an infringement action in order to have stand- ing to sue. Thus, except recordation of rights to the patent, there are no prerequisites (such as warning let- ters or engaging in mediation) for filing a lawsuit. For court fees for filing a lawsuit, see 8.2 Calcu- lation of Court Fees . In large-scale cases the court fees may reach significant amounts. The usual practice is to indicate merely a nominal amount for court fees; however, at the damages phase of the trial, the court fee for the full amount of the damages sought must be paid. One half of the court fees is paid as a condition of filing the lawsuit. The second half is payable before the trial date. Security for Costs At the defendant’s request, the court may require the plaintiff to provide security for costs. Where the plaintiff is a limited liability company, the burden is on the plaintiff to prove that it is able to bear the costs that may be awarded against it. In the absence of such a demonstration, the court will be inclined to order security for costs. The court may, however, where it deems this appropriate, refuse to order such security, hav- ing regard (inter alia) to the strength of the plain- tiff’s case. Where the plaintiff is an individual, and although formal power to require security for costs exists, the court will usually refrain from making such an order. However, where the individual plaintiff is a foreign resident lacking assets within the juris- diction, the court will be inclined to issue such an order (unless the plaintiff is a resident of a country that is party to a treaty with the state of Israel in which the state of Israel agreed to
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