United States of America

Hungary

IP Enforcement

Civil and administrative procedures and remedies

21. Article 45.2 requires that judges and administrative officials be authorized to order payment of a right holder's expenses, including legal fees. Please describe the authority of the judges and administrative officials identified in question 1 to order payment of right holders' expenses, the circumstances under which such an order will be given, the factors considered in establishing the expenses, and cite the legal authorities authorizing such payments.

Under Article 75 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the costs of proceedings are all costs incurred either in or out of court in relation to the practical and bona fide conducting of a suit by the parties (costs of preliminary inquiries and correspondence, official fees of proceedings, authorization, etc., fees of witnesses and experts, remuneration of interpreters, costs of on the spot trial and inspection, etc.). Disbursements and remuneration of the counsel of a party must also be added to the costs of proceedings. Under Articles 78 and 79 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the defeated party must refund the costs of litigation of the prevailing party. The court determines the amount of costs of litigation taking into consideration the data provided and duly certified by a party. Such costs, in accordance with Article 45.2 of the TRIPS Agreement, include appropriate attorney's fees. An additional provision can be found in Article 95(3) of the Patent Act which provides that the expenses and fees of the patent attorney representing a party are to be added to the costs of proceeding. However, it belongs to the discretionary power of the court, whether the total amount of the invoice of the counsel of the right holder (the total retainer fee stipulated by the right holder and his counsel) will be regarded as a justified expense. Normally, a maximum of 5% of the total amount disputed or in extremely complicated cases 5% + 50% thereof, i.e. 7.5% is awarded as a justified counsel's fee. This calculation is based upon the mandatory rule (Article 1) of the Decree of the Minister of Justice No. 12/1991 (IX. 29.) IM on the legal counsels' expenses. It is to be noted that the actual costs (telecommunication, photocopying, travel, accommodation, typing and similar miscellaneous costs) paid in connection with the legal counsel's activity are to be reimbursed on top of the fee on the basis of a detailed account of the said costs to be filed by the legal counsel (Article 2). In practice, Hungarian counsels frequently neglect this obligation, they file no account of costs, i.e. they do not use the possibility to have the actual costs reimbursed on top of their fee.