Transitory Criminal Court Specialised in IP Crimes reactivated

On December 30 2014 a Transitory Criminal Court Specialised in Intellectual Property Crimes was reactivated. This court will be functioning from January 1 to June 30 2015, and has competence in Lima and Callao.

The National Commission of Judicial Productivity is the entity in charge of managing the workload of criminal and civil courts. Due to the quantity of criminal cases originating from IP prosecutors' offices, it appeared necessary to reactivate a specialised criminal court to resolve customs and IP enforcement and infringement matters, including trademark infringement cases.

The National Commission of Judicial Productivity determined that the new Transitory Criminal Court will handle any new cases related to IP enforcement and infringement with efficiency and celerity in order to reduce the workload of other courts with regard to criminal IP cases.

The commission determined that, if an appeal is filed against any of the resolutions issued by the Transitory Criminal Court, such appeals will be handled by the First and Second Superior Criminal Courts of Appeal in Lima.

Due to the workload and lack of specialisation of the common criminal courts, the decision to reactivate a specialised criminal court to resolve IP cases represents a positive step, as IP cases will be dealt with in a more efficient way.

Adriana Barrera, BARLAW – Barrera & Asociados, Lima