ISRAEL Law and Practice Contributed by: Eran Bareket, Reinhold Cohn Group
the findings of the Patent Office, premised on the notion that the Patent Office is a body with high professional expertise. The court may inter- vene with a decision of the Patent Office when the question arising in the appeal involves the correct interpretation of the law as can be seen in the recent Tel Aviv District Court decision in VCA 32365-05-20 Intra-Cellular Therapies Inc. v The State of Israel – The Patent Office (12 April 2022). In the Supreme Court decision in LCA 386/22 Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GMBH & CO.KG v The State of Israel – The Patent Office (11 December 2022), which was a patent term extension case, the Court held that deference may be appropriate even with respect to legal questions, owing to the expertise of the ILPTO. The Supreme Court sees decisions on interim relief as discretionary and will therefore not read- ily interfere (see, eg, LCA 338/22 Amgen (Europe) GmbH v Rafa Laboratories (30 March 2022)). There are no protective briefs. It is common practice that, upon request from the other party, one should add copies of warning letters that were sent related to every motion filed with the court. 8.2 Calculation of Court Fees According to a schedule to the Court Regula- tions (Fees), the filing fee rate is 2.5% of the claimed amount up to ILS25.9 million (approxi- mately USD7.21 million) and 1% of any addi- tional amount. Section 6(a) of the Court Regulations (Fees) states that the court fee shall be paid in two equal instalments: the first when filing the action 8. Costs 8.1 Costs Before Filing a Lawsuit
and the second up to 20 days prior to the date scheduled for the first evidence hearing. 8.3 Responsibility for Paying the Costs of Litigation Please see 6.2 Rights of Prevailing Defendants . 9. Alternative Dispute Resolution 9.1 Type of Actions for Intellectual Property The use of ADR is more widespread in general commercial disputes than in the field of intellec- tual property. However, the awareness of ADR in patent litigation has significantly increased in recent years and mediation is generally encour- aged by the courts. Due the high workload in the Israeli court sys- tem, judges encourage parties to use mediation (which is regulated by law), but doing so is pos- sible only with the consent of both parties. Arbitration is also regulated by law and allows the parties to agree upon the possibility of appealing the arbitrator’s verdict. 10. Assignment and Licensing 10.1 Requirements or Restrictions for Assignment of Intellectual Property Rights There is no legal obligation to record assign- ment agreements for registered patents or pend- ing applications at the Patent Office. Failure to record such assignments does not influence the validity of the application or the patent granted thereon, nor does it have any bearing on the rela- tionship between the parties to the agreement. Nevertheless, recording the change is recom-
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