BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: Valentin de le Court, Camille De Munter and Emilie Van Heck, Osborne Clarke LLP
in the first instance or on appeal, the appeal or appeal to the Supreme Court will have suspen- sive effect. 7. Appeal 7.1 Special Provisions for Intellectual Property Proceedings There are no special provisions concerning the appellate procedure in patent or SPC disputes. The appeal is available to all parties to a pro- cedure, and for patent cases, must be brought before the Brussels Court of Appeal within one month of the service of the first-instance deci- sion. 7.2 Type of Review The appeal implies a full review of the facts of the case and is not limited to a legal review. The initial claim may even be extended or modified, and new evidence can be submitted. In third instance, as stated under 2.3 Courts With Jurisdiction , the Belgian Supreme Court is competent and does not rule on the merits of a case. Only a legal review will be carried out.
warning letters or protective letters, as well as drafting the writ of summons). 8.2 Calculation of Court Fees In Belgium, the court fee for commencing pro- ceedings are statutory fees, the amount of which depends on the competent court. Before the Brussels Enterprise Court competent in patent and SPC matters (see 5.2 Decision-Makers ), these fixed fees amount to EUR165 in the first instance. These fees will eventually be borne by the losing party and are payable after the receipt of the judicial decision. 8.3 Responsibility for Paying the Costs of Litigation The losing party will be responsible for pay- ing the costs of litigation, such as court fees, expenses, technical experts’ fees (such as the fees of patent attorneys) and lawyers’ fees. The reimbursement of the lawyers’ fees of the prevailing party is, however, made through the payment of a statutory lump-sum known as a “procedural indemnity” which is determined by law and mainly based on the amounts in dis - pute. In practice the procedural indemnity is largely insufficient to cover the effective lawyer’s fees (and the prevailing party cannot claim the reimbursement of its actual legal lawyer’s fees beyond the procedural indemnity). 9. Alternative Dispute Resolution 9.1 Type of Actions for Intellectual Property Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods, including mediation and arbitration, are generally voluntary and all the parties must agree to set- tling their intellectual property dispute through these mechanisms.
8. Costs 8.1 Costs Before Filing a Lawsuit
The costs that arise before filing a lawsuit vary from one case to another and are mainly caused by the intervention of the lawyers, patent attor- neys, bailiff, and experts that will be working on the preparation of the case (including for assess- ing the merits of the case, analysing the patents/ SPC and the products or processes at stake, collecting relevant evidence, engaging experts, and undertaking pre-litigation actions such as
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