Japon

États-Unis d'Amérique

Moyens de faire respecter les DPI

18. Please explain whether the discovery procedure under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure may cost the party concerned a lot of burden or time, because the scope of disclosure is extensive and the procedure usually lasts long. Please explain whether the discovery is consistent with Article 41.2 of the TRIPS Agreement, which requires that the procedures concerning the enforcement of intellectual property rights not be unnecessarily complicated or costly.

The discovery procedure governed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (the Rules) is fully consistent with the obligations of Article 41.2. The discovery procedure enables each party to an action for enforcement of intellectual property rights to obtain information related to any claim or defence in that action. The Rules authorize the judge in any enforcement action to limit discovery requests which are unreasonably cumulative or duplicative; if the information is obtainable from some other source that is more convenient, less burdensome, or less expensive; if the party seeking discovery has had ample opportunity by discovery in the action to obtain the information sought; or if the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit, taking into account the needs of the case, the amount in controversy, the parties' resources, the importance of the issues at stake in the litigation, and the importance of the proposed discovery in resolving the issues. See Rule 26. The judge in any enforcement action also is required to issue a scheduling order that, among other things, limits the time for completion of discovery. See Rule 16(b).