The County Court (Amendment) Rules (Northern Ireland) 2006

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Rules)

These Rules amend the County Court Rules (Northern Ireland) 1981 (“the principal Rules”) to:

• implement the European Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (Directive 2004/48/EC) by making provision for the court to make an interim order making the continuation of an alleged infringement of an intellectual property right subject to guarantees, by providing that where the court grants a remedy before the issue of proceedings, the remedy shall only be granted on terms providing for the issue of a civil bill and by amending the procedure relating to applications under the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988 and the Trade Marks Act 1994;

• remove references to the Trade Marks Act 1938, which has now been repealed;

• designate a list of securities in which the Accountant General may invest money paid into the county court by order of the court, in accordance with his powers under the Judicature (Northern Ireland) Act 1978;

• facilitate the use of a generic, electronic seal in the county court;

• uplift by 10.47% (rounded where appropriate) certain costs prescribed in the body of the principal Rules and the scale costs for solicitor and counsel prescribed in Appendix 2 of the principal Rules; and

• provide for judicial discretion to increase costs in discrimination cases under specified statutory provisions, where the amount decreed or, in the case of a dismiss, claimed exceeds £15,000.