A clear guide for the Patents industry in Colombia
What legal or administrative proceedings are available for enforcing patent rights against an infringer? Are there specialised courts in which a patent infringement lawsuit can or must be brought?
Civil actions may be pursued before the SIC or the civil circuit courts present in the larger cities. Criminal actions may be pursued before a specialised unit for intellectual property affairs (according to articles 706 and 70; of the Criminal Code), however, criminal infringement actions are extremely rare. If the infringer is a public servant or a government entity, the patent holder must file a ‘direct reparation’ lawsuit before the contentious administrative jurisdiction.
The SIC has become the principal venue to litigate infringements. However, over the past year, civil circuit judges and the Superior Tribunal (for appeals) have proven to be an effective and faster choice for patent infringement cases.
According to the SIC 2029 Annual Report‘ complaints ’led and admitted before the SIC reached to 193 including unfair competition, trademark and patent infringement cases. There are no statistics related to IP infringement cases before Civil Circuit Judges. However, with two recent SEP litigation campaigns patent litigation has increased over the past two years including both venues (the SIC and civil circuit judges).
