On 2004-07-23 13:25:48 +0100 Sven Luther <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
The cost of hiring a lawyer in france local to the Court of
Versailles is
probably less or similar to the cost of hirinig a lawyer of similar
competence
and fluent in the Laws of France, in a country local to the
defendent. I don't
have hard data over this though, and would welcome hard data to the
contrary.
IIRC, there is no requirement for a private individual to be
represented by a lawyer in an English court, although many are.
Additionally, the case would probably be heard in the appropriate
court nearest to the defendant, so travel costs are minimal, and there
may be Legal Aid available. Therefore, the need to hire a lawyer local
to Versailles is a significant additional expense an abusive licensor
can make the defendant pay, apparently on a whim.
There have been famous English civil self-defences, like the McLibel
trial. I have tried to verify the above is still true today, but
there's not a match in the subject indices I have access to and I
can't construct a free text search which isn't drowned by irrelevant
matches (for example "represent yourself infringement" finds lots of
trademark information...).
I thought someone had previously claimed that the choice of venue was
not valid to a French court anyway?
--
MJR/slef My Opinion Only and not of any group I know
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