ROMANIA LAW AND PRACTICE Contributed by: Raluca Vasilescu, Cabinet M. Oproiu and Ioana Gelepu, The Office Litigation & Enforcement
2.1 Actions Available Against Infringement , 2.7 Interim Injunctions and 8. Costs are relevant. An action for unfair competition may be also avail- able if the patent infringement involves an unfair competitive practice. The plaintiff is entirely at liberty to choose the legal approach and decides the legal remedy as the plaintiff sees fit. A core principle of civil pro- ceedings is availability, which implies that the court is not able to grant something other than what has been requested. The success of an enforcement procedure where an amount of money is involved will depend on the debtor’s financial situation. Judgments imposing certain conduct can be difficult to enforce. 6.2 Rights of Prevailing Defendants If the defendant wins the case, they can claim judicial costs from the losing party (the plaintiff). Judicial costs include lawyers’ fees, any court- appointed expert or party’s expert fees, as well as any other expenses necessary for the course of the proceedings (for example, costs incurred due to an out-of-court expert’s report). 6.3 Types of Remedies There are no different types of remedies for different industrial property rights; they are the same – see 2.1 Actions Available Against Infringement and 6.1 Remedies for the Paten- tee . The amount is usually higher in the case of patent infringement cases. 6.4 Injunctions Pending Appeal Judgments issued at first instance are, as a rule (and in this case), not enforceable. Nonetheless, the winning plaintiff at first instance may request the court to order provisional enforcement of the judgment (eg, in respect of cessation of the
case pending the outcome of the infringement case. 5.2 Decision-Makers Proceedings taking place at OSIM, acting as court of first instance, are heard by a specialised commission of examiners which is equivalent to a panel of technical judges. Proceedings tak- ing place in the courts are heard by a panel of legal judges (one, two or three judges). There are special court panels that hear industrial property matters. The parties do not have any influence on who is the decision-maker: the composition of the OSIM commission is decided by the head of the respective department. As to court proceed- ings, when the lawsuit is lodged, the judges are assigned randomly. 5.3 Settling the Case There are no formal mechanisms for settling a case, and settlements are not very frequent. 5.4 Other Court Proceedings Where two cases are connected, the court may order the suspension of one case pending the final outcome of the other. In ordering this meas- ure, the court will consider whether the deci- sion to be given depends on the judgment in the other case. For example, an action claiming damages for exploitation of a patent could be stayed pending the settlement of an action for annulment of that patent.
6. Remedies 6.1 Remedies for the Patentee
According to Romanian law, the owner of a pat- ent benefits from several legal means to protect its rights in case of infringement. The remarks in
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