Hargreaves and the SME Litigants

Not many IP Cases get this level of Publicity.
(c) Ben Sutherland 2008

As the 4 March deadline for the submission of evidence to the Hargreaves IP Review, one senses that there may be a bit of concern that real evidence is a bit thin on the ground.  A meeting has been convened on the evening of  23 February at which ITMA and CIPA have been inviting members to fill their respective 30 places. If you pay to be a corporate member of either august institution and want an invite get on to your favoured one at once, since neither is advertising the event on their website.
There are also supposed to be 30 places for SME representatives, who will therefore be outnumbered.  I wonder who is arranging their delegation but I suspect we can expect some criticism about the cost of litigation. It is not reported whether solicitors are invited but since it is in Freshfield's offices, there may be some and so it may not be too easy to say only they are the only expensive ones.
What are the changes in the law that could make litigation more accessible. The Patents County Court looks promising and if No Win No Fee offers are available from litigators, those with strong cases should be able to find representation. Defendants may find it harder to get representation that way. Hopefully no-one will be wasting too much more time talking about insurance. Perhaps Hargreaves can rely on the Amedee Turner report to the European Commission as evidence that that is a dead end.