Trade

Patents case commenced in patents county court - defendant seeking transfer to High Court - considerations when determining applications for transfer from one court to anotherWesley Jessen Corpn and another v Coopervision Ltd: ChD (Mr Justice Neuberger): 4 July 2001The claimants commenced a patents action in the Central London County Court.

The defendant applied to have it transferred to the High Court as the more appropriate court.Michael Silverleaf QC and Heather Lawrence (instructed by Travers Smith Braithwaite) for the defendant.

Richard Arnold QC (instructed by Bristows) for the claimants.Held, refusing the application, that the onus was on the party making the application to demonstrate that there were compelling arguments in favour of transferring the action; that since the patents county court was a specialist county court with hearings before a specialist judge or deputy the parties could be confident that any hearing would be before an experienced patents lawyer; that when considering an application to transfer an action from the patents county court to the High Court the court should consider, among other things, the financial position of the parties, the financial substance of the action, the complexity of the case and the time the hearing was likely to take; and that, although the case was suitable for either the High Court or the county court, the defendants had not shown that there would be any advantage in transferring the proceedings to the High Court.