WIPO on 24th September 2020, launched WIPO Lex-Judgements, which is WIPO’s new database that would provide free access to leading judicial decisions related to IP from across the world.
WIPO Lex-judgements is expected to help in gaining a better understanding of how courts across various jurisdictions handle and solve the complex IP disputes. This can be seen as an important step to make IP adjudication more coherent, effective, and accessible. The WIPO Lex-judgements database provides free access to 52700 legal documents. Currently, it provides access to over 400 documents from Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Republic of Korea, and Spain. WIPO plans to grow it further with the addition of judgments from every new participating member state and to improve with updates to enhance its search, filtering, machine translation, functions, etc.
WIPO’s member states interested in contributing leading decisions from their country are invited to contact WIPO.
WIPO’s director-general Francis Gurry states, “WIPO Lex-Judgments will provide an important support for the adjudication of IP disputes in a globalized world where courts and policymakers, challenged by the dynamic nature of the IP discipline, can use the information gained from foreign judgments and judicial practice to inform their own search for domestic judicial and policy solutions.”
In 2018, WIPO initiated a new focus on the judicial administration of IP in recognition of the transnational character of IP disputes. This endeavor is particularly focussed to increase availability of information about landmark IP judgments across jurisdictions to help on the judicial administration of IP.
WIPO Lex-Judgments database is a direct response to the needs expressed by member states from Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC region) and various others; co-ordinated by WIPO Judicial Institute.
Since these judgments and landmark decisions have a significant impact on answering these complex IP disputes by the judiciary, it is indeed a welcome step by WIPO.
The database captures searchable, bibliographic details for all indexed judgments, which include subject matter, issuing authority, type of proceeding, relevant legislation, keyword, and summary, as well as the full text of the judgment in its original language and also enables cross-references to national laws and international treaties referenced in the decision, as contained in WIPO Lex.
The interface of the database is available in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish along with the automatic machine translation tools and WIPO Translate.
This database is expected to be immensely helpful for judges, policymakers, attorneys, and academia for effective IP adjudication.
