De la Juridiction Unifiée du Brevet, ce blog en discute régulièrement à propos de son impact dans le contentieux du brevet européen et du futur brevet unitaire probablement appelé le brevet communautaire.

Mais n’y aurait-il pas un nouvel acteur ?

Les négociations sur l’accord de libre-échange avec les Etats – Unis ( Tafta : Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, ou TTIP : Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, ou encore en français le PTCI : Partenariat Transatlantique pour le Commerce et l’Investissement) envisageraient pour le règlement des différends la mise en place d’une structure ad hoc « an Investment Court System (ICS) » et éviter ainsi le recours à l’arbitrage privé.

Certes, comme le tire l’indique, il s’agirait  d’investissement, mais le texte de travail de l’accord de libre échange transatlantique donne quelques définitions qui mentionnent ou évoquent les droits de propriété industrielle et les revenus qui en sont issus.

 (x1) ‘covered investment’ means an investment which is owned, directly or indirectly, or controlled, directly or indirectly, by investors of one Party in the territory1 of the other Party made in accordance with applicable laws, whether made before or after the entry into force of this Agreement.

(x2) ‘investment’ means every kind of asset which has the characteristics of an investment, which includes a certain duration and other characteristics such as the commitment of capital or other resources, the expectation of gain or profit, or the assumption of risk. Forms that an investment may take include:

a) an enterprise;

b) shares, stocks and other forms of equity participation in an enterprise;

c) bonds, debentures and other debt instruments of an enterprise;

d) a loan to an enterprise;

e) any other kinds of interest in an enterprise;

f) an interest arising from:

i) a concession conferred pursuant to domestic law or under a contract, including to search for, cultivate, extract or exploit natural resources,

ii) a turnkey, construction, production, or revenue-sharing contract, or

iii) other similar contracts;

g) intellectual property rights;

h) any other moveable property, tangible or intangible, or immovable property and related rights;

i) claims to money or claims to performance under a contract;

For greater certainty, ‘claims to money’ does not include claims to money that arise solely from commercial contracts for the sale of goods or services by a natural person or enterprise in the territory of a Party to a natural person or enterprise in the territory of the other Party, domestic financing of such contracts, or any related order, judgment, or arbitral award.

Returns that are invested shall be treated as investments and any alteration of the form in which assets are invested or reinvested shall not affect their qualification as investments.

 (x3) ‘freely convertible currency’ means a currency which is widely traded in international foreign exchange markets and widely used in international transactions.

(x4) ‘returns’ means all amounts yielded by or derived from an investment or reinvestment, including profits, dividends, capital gains, royalties, interest, payments in connection with intellectual property rights, payments in kind and all other lawful income.