Territoriality and Jurisdiction in EU IP Law

Abstract

Almost every type of intellectual property right is territorial in nature, and although in the EU some EU-wide unitary intellectual property rights exist, corresponding national rights also persist in most areas of intellectual property in the EU, and will continue so to do.  The increasingly international nature of trade and the increasingly dematerialised nature of much content provision has meant that national courts in the EU and sometimes the Court of Justice of the EU, are ever more often called on to review how national courts should address questions of how the EU principles of jurisdiction apply to such national intellectual property rights.