Exclusive jurisdiction Tribunal de Grande Instance (Paris)

With thanks to Pauline Debré, Bird&Bird

As of November 1, 2009, the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris (the first instance court) has exclusive jurisdiction for all patent actions brought in France.

The change results from of Decree n° 2009-1205, which was issued on October 9, 2009. The Decree applies to patents, utility certificates, supplementary protection certificates (SPC) and topographies of semiconductor products, and is also applicable to the procedure of “saisie-contrefaçon”.